Filibuster for Baynes

September 22, 2010 permalink

The crown has delayed the end of the Bayne trial for yet another week with a filibuster.

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Part 1 of 3 THE MINISTRY'S FINAL SUBMISSION / Part 316 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

I will take the remainder of the week to tell this story.

We were allowed into the court room at 9:30 am. We easily filled the seats on either side of this smaller court room. As we waited for his Honour to enter I viewed the surroundings. On a large desk accessible to the Clerk were numerous boxes of filed exhibits and reports. On their side was marked F10073 CFCSA & Bayne.

This was September 21st, expected to be the Ministry summation by Finn Jensen and the final day in court for this case. Not so, it turned out. Jensen worked until 12:30 PM when Judge Crabtree recessed for lunch. We were back at 2:00 PM. By 3 PM we took an afternoon recess and for the second time that afternoon Mr. Jensen said he would move forward, skipping something in order to be done within an hour. At 4:00 PM Judge Crabtree asked Jensen how much more time he would require. Jensen replied, “two and one half hours.” The Judge withdrew for several minutes to discover when his schedule allowed him time to meet again and when a court room might be available. Mr. Jensen will complete his final summation on September 30th beginning at 10:00 AM.

In addition on the 30th, Judge Crabtree will hear the Ministry's affidavit for a change of visitation times for the Baynes with their children. That was served to the Baynes and to the Judge upon arrival today. The Baynes need to consult their lawyer and prepare an affidavit as well as be prepared to speak to this application. The Ministry Director has concerns that the children's schedules are very full now and three weekly visits of three hours each is difficult to arrange and hard on them. The proposal is one 3 hour visit and then 6 hrs on Saturday. The Judge had earlier increased to three visit days rather than two and for that reason the Ministry is seeking the Judge's ruling on this suggested change. The Judge may listen to this final summation and to the responses regarding the affidavit by video to accommodate his own schedule.

Little will be gained by me making strongly biased statements so will simply relate my court observations.

“Court is in session, all rise,” the clerk says as Judge Thomas Crabtree enters, laptop in hand and takes his seat. The Judge began by drawing attention to a list of nine items, unresolved issues which still required attention. Mr. Jensen's day might be tidily segmented into two portions, the first walking the Judge through those nine items to get them all out of the way, and then getting to his submission proper.

Finn Jensen demonstrated today that he earns his pay. He was good. I am not saying that I accept all that he says. With reference to exhibits and testimonies and reports and submissions made to the court so far, Jensen gave a well articulated, understandable, plausible and logical presentation of what the judge should permit as evidence and what he should reject. He carefully, no, make that artfully sought to distance the Ministry position from the much maligned Shaken Baby Syndrome (now called Non Accidental Brain Injury), to focus attention on the gravity of a couple of the medical findings with respect to Baby B in October 2007. Those injuries were extremely severe, he told us, and consistent only with non accidental injury. He sought to deflect attention away from Dr. Colbourne as sole proponent of the SBS diagnosis to tell the judge that this was a hospital team effort, a collaboration of expert assessments that resulted in a conclusion that the body of evidence pointed to abuse. At this point, knowing that earlier in the hearing, the CCO affidavit had rested fundamentally upon the SBS diagnosis of Dr. Margaret Colbourne, and listening to him wanting to divest the Ministry of this attachment now, I was struck with the possibility that Mr. Jensen was using word play or creative concepts to say virtually, “okay forget SBS because the injury factors alone are sufficient to convince you that this was not an accident.”

'Beach Bikes,' oil on canvas, Ron Unruh

As a reader you may not approve of the team for which he plays or the way they play the game, but Finn Jensen is an extremely competent lawyer. He serves his client well.

More tomorrow. I would rather have been painting.

Posted by Ron at 12:01 AM

Source: Ron Unruh blog