I was at the 'Conference' at court today only for a short time and much of it was during their recess's. I was the only observer there. I had another afternoon meeting so didn't stay past noon.
As indicated they met in a conference room on the 7th floor, presided over by Judge Aalto. A Mr. Todd and another female lawyer were on one side of the table, representing the government and Paul Slansky, Mme. Doyon, Mohamed and his interpreter sat on the other. They were basically trying to work out a plan for separating the commingled doucuments that would be to both teams' satisfactions. The judge is still going to allow Public Counsel to still argue 'Prejudice' issue, but mostly they are going to work on this plan. They spoke about how it is going to be paid for, since Paul said there were some issues with legal aid continuing to pay them. Paul also wondered about how much training would be reqired of the 'separation teams'. Judge Aalto said he had some authority in the money matter and he didn't want this task to go on any back burner. Judge Aalto asked both sides to think of and bring forward names of people who they thought could do the task of separating and to share those names with the other side. Judge Aalto said he didn't feel it was necessary to get a handwriting expert. Judge Aalto said if the two sides could not achieve clarity on their choices for their 'separation teams' then he would make the decision. Mr. Todd immediately proposed Rhonda Marquis who was on the government legal team in this case but who has been promoted to a deputy director of the Immigration division of the Dept. of Justice, Toronto region. She is no longer on the team but is very familiar with the case. Paul and Mme. Doyon didn't propose anyone yet. Judge Aalto wanted to get started in 24 hours, but Paul and Mme. Doyon said they had some other commitments and Monday is a holiday so they set the next meeting for Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 9:30 and if possible to have their 'separation teams' there, I beleive. They didn't name the meeting place but I assume it would be the same. Judge Aalto also proposed for the sake of expediting things quicker - to have all the documents moved to the Federal Court building from where they are. Paul and Mme. Doyon had concerns about who would have access during the move. Paul said he trusted court officers but he said, "I don't trust some CSIS officers as far as I could throw them". Judge Aalto agreed with this concern and said the only people touching the documents would be responsible to the court. He also said he would have everything videotaped in clear pictures. He showed a still photo of the documents in their present location and said it wasn't good quality.
At that point Paul asked for a recess for he, Mme. Doyon and Mohamed to discuss these matters. At that point I left. They were going to continue the meeting to hash out the parameters of how to separate these mixed documents.
Next meeting – Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 9:30 am, 180 Queen Street West (near Osgoode station), Floor 7, a Conference room (just ask the guard on the floor)
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