Gravel-throwing trial: Lawyer for accused plans to subpoena Justin Trudeau

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The lawyer representing a person accused of pelting Justin Trudeau with pebbles throughout a London marketing campaign cease final yr says he plans to subpoena the prime minister.

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Shane Marshall, 26, of St. Thomas, is charged with assault with a weapon after gravel was thrown at Trudeau whereas he was boarding a bus following a marketing campaign cease exterior the London Brewing Co-op on Sept. 6, 2021.

Video of the incident exhibits the prime minister flip round abruptly as he seems to be struck with small rocks earlier than boarding the bus whereas protesters – a lot of them holding Folks’s Social gathering of Canada indicators – shout obscenities at him.

Lawyer Phillip Millar, who’s representing Marshall, mentioned he’s making ready to subpoena Trudeau on Thursday, alleging the prime minister offered contradictory accounts of whether or not he was struck by stones.

“I’ve each intention of subpoenaing Justin Trudeau, difficult him on the inconsistencies of his statements and alleging that he was scary the protesters,” Millar mentioned Monday.

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Trudeau, who wasn’t injured, instructed reporters on the bus after the incident he wasn’t certain whether or not the stones struck him.

“Does it matter?” video of the interplay exhibits Trudeau responding to a reporter when requested if he was hit.

A trial date for Marshall, who was launched on bail, will probably be set on Wednesday.

“We have now a really robust case to justify that subpoena and imagine that it will likely be enforced,” Millar mentioned, including he’d like to cross-examine the prime minister.

The Prime Minister’s Workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Monday.

Marshall was the Folks’s Social gathering of Canada’s driving affiliation president for the driving of Elgin-Middlesex-London on the time of the incident. The social gathering turfed him after his alleged involvement within the assault on Trudeau surfaced on-line.

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The Canada Anti-Hate Community mentioned on the time it had been monitoring Marshall for greater than a yr after linking him to alleged white nationalist postings on social media.

In an unrelated felony case, Marshall was given a five-year weapons ban on July 19 as a part of deal that noticed the Crown withdraw a cost of storing a firearm in an unsafe method laid in October 2020, in response to court docket data.

Marshall made headlines throughout the Freedom Convoy occupation in Ottawa, the place footage of him being arrested on Feb. 17 – sooner or later earlier than police started a large operation to take away the demonstrators – was posted on social media.

Millar mentioned his shopper was later launched with out costs.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com