In a precedent-setting ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the New Brunswick Court of Appeal made a mistake when keeping Dennis Oland behind bars while awaiting his conviction appeal — a decision that has left Oland’s defence team with some mixed feelings.
“I’m very happy that our legal arguments were vindicated,” says Oland defence lawyer Alan Gold, in a phone interview with Acadia Broadcasting.
“Our happiness is tempered by the fact that Dennis Oland spent many months in custody when he really shouldn’t have and it’s regrettable that we weren’t able to get him bail right away.”
Gold says that this ruling will now guide all the appellate courts across Canada and remind them that:
“If a person has a decent, solid appeal, and there’s no concern about them committing further offences or running away, that the reasonable Canadian citizen would understand that they should be out on bail waiting for their appeal.”
But this may not be the last time the Oland case goes to the country’s highest court — the Crown has appealed Dennis Oland’s conviction being overturned by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, and Acadia Broadcasting has confirmed that the defence team is cross-appealing.
“We just finished actually, the material is just on its way to Ottawa, that’s what we’ve been working on for the last little while,” says Gold.
“We’ve filed written responses to the Crown’s application to leave to appeal, regarding the issue of law that we were successful on and we have filed material asking the Supreme Court for leave, for permission, to review the grounds that the Court of Appeal did not accept from us.”
The grounds that the Court of Appeal did not accept would be an unreasonable verdict leading to acquittal.
Gold says it should be filed by Monday.
“Today is another good day for us and we’re very happy with it but obviously our efforts are directed to ultimate success in clearing Dennis Oland’s name,” he says.
(Alan Gold and Gary Miller)
