The lawyer fighting two pandemic-era tickets issued to a Prince George nightclub butted heads with a judge over whether to have a trial on the matter heard in French.
Representing the owner of Lambda Cabaret, now known as Club 1177, lawyer Saron Gebresellassi is seeking the step because the expert witnesses she plans to have testify on behalf of her client speak only French.
The tickets were issued in September 2021 by the B.C. Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch for allegedly violating COVID-related restrictions.
On Friday, Provincial Court Judge Martin Nadon differed with Gebresellassi over how to interpret a section of the Criminal Code on the issue.
Gebresellassi noted they were issued to a corporate entity, Learn to Earn Bartending School and Consulting Ltd., and argued that the "directing mind of the corporation is Francophone."
However, Nadon said his reading shows the section applies to a person not a corporate entity, and that Learn to Earn is "closely held" by Linda Allen. Corporate documents list her as the president, secretary and sole director, he noted.
Nadon told Gebresellassi he would have to be convinced Allen could both follow the trial and provide instructions to her lawyer in that language before he could grant the request. Allen did not attend the hearing and no evidence on that aspect was presented.
He also differed with Gebresellassi assertion that the right to have a trial heard in French is protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
"It's not an absolute right," he said as he urged Gebresellassi to make her case within the confines set out in the Criminal Code.
Gebresellassi later suggested the trial could be bilingual and Crown prosecution suggested bringing in an interpreter for the witnesses.
Nadon reserved decision on the matter.
