B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted last week of conspiring to recruit and groom teenage girls to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein, plans to request a new trial after a juror in her case revealed he was a victim of sexual abuse, her defense lawyers said Wednesday.
The lawyers said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan that "based on undisputed, publicly available information, the Court can and should order a new trial without any evidentiary hearing."
The judge late Wednesday set a schedule for the defence to ask for a new trial, saying it should make the request by Jan. 19, with prosecutors replying by Feb. 2.
She asked them to address whether "an inquiry of some kind" is permitted or required. Nathan also said she will offer a court-appointed lawyer for the juror.
The judge's order came after defence lawyers said Maxwell "intends to request a new trial" with a submission that will include all known undisputed remarks of the juror, along with recorded statements and the questionnaire all jurors filled out.
"It is clear to Ms. Maxwell that based on this record alone a new trial is required," they said, urging that all trial jurors be examined to evaluate their conduct if a hearing occurs.
In interviews published Tuesday and Wednesday by The Independent and the Daily Mail, one juror described a moment during the deliberations when he told fellow jurors in Maxwell's trial that, like some of the victims of the late financier Epstein, he had been sexually abused as a child. And he said he convinced other jurors that a victim's imperfect memory of sex abuse doesn't mean it didn't happen.
"I know what happened when I was sexually abused. I remember the colour of the carpet, the walls. Some of it can be replayed like a video," he said he told the jury, according to The Independent. "But I can't remember all the details, there are some things that run together."
The judge denied a request by another defence lawyer who wrote a separate letter asking her to suspend all other post-trial motions in the case.
In their own letter to Nathan, even prosecutors said those reports "merit attention by the Court." The juror was identified only by his first and middle name in the articles.
Prosecutors suggested in their letter that Nathan schedule a hearing in about one month, along with a schedule for lawyers to file briefs regarding the applicable law and the scope of the hearing.
"The Government respectfully submits that any juror investigation should be conducted exclusively under the supervision of the Court," prosecutors wrote.
Potential jurors in Maxwell's case were asked to fill out a questionnaire asking: "Have you or a friend or family member ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual assault?"
Quoting from the press reports, prosecutors said the juror asserted that he "flew through" the questionnaire and didn't recall being asked if he'd been a victim of sex abuse.
Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.
No sentencing date has been set after the conviction of Maxwell, 60, and she is still facing trial on perjury charges.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.