From: johnturmel@gmail.com   
      
   TURMEL: Dominic Gravel is Last MedPot charge in old CDSA era   
      
   JCT: Amazing coincidences in what should be our very last   
   BENO (Bad Exemption No Offence) Quash Motion and   
   Constitutional Motion before having a jury trial!! We did   
   this before with Nicola Fontana in Gatineau (1,500 second   
   jury trial) and Adrien Stuerme in Montreal.   
      
   Dominic Gravel's permit was delayed 7 months and he filed a   
   Federal Court Claim to speed Health Canada up. It worked.   
      
   His grow for 246 indoor plants was on a friend's farm in   
   Campbell's Bay Quebec. The proprietor then asked him to move   
   out but let him put his plants outside. Then his plantation   
   was busted but they didn't charge him, just destroyed his   
   outdoor plants. This was under the old CDSA before the new   
   Cannabis Act.   
      
   Then 1.5 years later, he gets a notice in the mail that the   
   Crown is charging him with production of 187 plants under   
   the old CDSA with a mandatory minimum sentence.   
      
   PAST   
   What's interesting is that Dominic was one of my first big   
   criminal code wins. 15 years ago, Dominic Gravel had been   
   busted in Gatineau with 8,000 plants! One of the biggest   
   busts in Quebec and he was facing up to a life sentence. No   
   bail pending trial!   
      
   In jail, Dominic met brother Ray Turmel who had just been   
   convicted of growing marijuana! Ray put him in contact with   
   me to get him out.   
      
   https://groups.google.com/g/alt.fan.john-turmel   
   search "Dominic Gravel" finds my many reports on his story.   
   On Jan 24 2005, he was the first to use the fact that the   
   Krieger case had struck down the S.7 production section as   
   Parker had struck down the S.4 possession section. So we did   
   motion after motion for release.   
      
   I was even allowed to visit him in jail as his legal adviser   
   like a lawyer without being searched!   
      
   Eventually, the Crown offered him a deal of "time served"   
   for a plea and he got out a couple of months before Christmas having served 16   
   months. He was happy to get out.   
      
   DESAULNIERS   
   So he had a date booked for Tuesday Dec 10 in   
   Campbell's Bay on the charge of growing outdoor plants with   
   an indoor permit. The judge was from Gatineau, Anouk   
   Desaulniers, who had been the Crown Attorney back in 2005   
   who had put Ray in jail! Where he met Dominic! Who was now   
   before her.   
      
   When he explained that he was was going to refuse to answer   
   and remain mute   
   until he's in front of his jury, the Crown had no clue what   
   was going on but Judge Desaulniers did. She'd seen or heard   
   of it from previous Gatineau cases. She said: "It's about   
   the law being abrogated." So she pleasantly sent him on for   
   hearing in Gatineau 2 days later on Thursday Dec 12.   
      
   MANDEVILLE   
      
   On Dec 12 2020, in Gatineau, he was before Justice Catherine   
   Mandeville who asked what Dominic wanted. The Crown wasn't there. When Dominic   
   said he wanted to file his Motion to Quash, Judge Mandeville, having been   
   involved with the Tim McConnell and Luc Paquette self-defences, knew what was   
   going on.   
      
   Mandeville bemoaned Judge Desaulniers shuttling it to Gatineau in short notice   
   and that it could never make these assizes. She   
   booked him to the next assizes on March 26 2021 apologizing that   
   he'd come for nothing and the file hadn't even yet arrived.   
      
   She asked if he wouldn't mind waiting until his next   
   appearance on March 26, 2021 to file his motion. He said   
   sure.   
      
   She ended saying there was a good chance that after the   
   Crown checks with Health Canada, it might be over before   
   then.   
      
   She said she knew his case would take 25 minutes. Maybe a letter would arrive   
   before March 26. She told him not to worry about it, to have nice holidays.   
   The lady crown asked for his email.   
      
   So the last BENO fight under the old CDSA regulations. I don't see how he can   
   lose when they're faced with a jury trial over whether he should be jailed for   
   having an indoor permit after being forced outdoors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)