THUNDER BAY -- A Thunder Bay man sentenced to nearly a decade behind bars for drug trafficking, money laundering and possessing proceeds of crime has had his conviction overturned and will face a new trial.
In a ruling released earlier this month, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new trial for Marcel Breton, concluding the presiding judge did not properly assist the self-represented accused during his 2014 trial.
Breton was convicted of 21 charges by Ontario Superior Court Justice Terrance Platana following a three-week trial. The case was heard without a jury. The conviction resulted in a sentence of nine-and-a-half-years, though he received credit for three years of pre-sentence custody.
The appeal court accepted a concession from the Crown that a new trial be ordered on the basis that Superior Court Justice Terrance Platana, the trial judge, failed to provide sufficient assistance to Breton.
Breton represented himself after his lawyer asked to be removed as counsel of record, first during a pre-trial motion and then again immediately before the trial.
“It was incumbent on the trial judge to ensure that (Breton) understood the essential elements of those offences that the Crown was required to prove in order to establish his guilt,” the decision reads. “The trial judge failed to provide that assistance.”
The appeal court noted that the trial judge faces a heavy responsibility presiding over cases with self-represented defendants.
"It is not enough that the verdict at the end of the trial is or appears correct. What matters is whether the trial has been fair for the self-represented accused," the decision reads.
During the trial, Platana warned Breton that the trial would proceed even if it meant that Breton would not have a lawyer. The appeal court acknowledged that Platana appeared to believe that Breton was “gaming the system,” with it already taking nearly five years from the date of the first court appearance for the case to reach trial.
“There are no easy days in the trial of self-represented litigants. It is all the more so for self-represented litigants who appear to be playing the system, bent on delaying the day of reckoning until the 12th of never by various devices,” the decision reads.
Breton had been arrested in December 2009 after a search of his Mapleward Road home and property resulted in the seizure of 120 grams of cocaine, 50 ecstasy tablets, nearly 500 grams of marijuana and $1.2 million in cash buried in the ground.
The charges included possession for the purpose of trafficking cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy, six counts of possession of the proceeds of crime exceeding $5,000, seven counts of money laundering and possession of a prohibited weapon.
