The wife of well-known native protester Shawn Michael Brant issued a statement about his April arrest, charging the provincial police and Crown attorney are "vilifying" her husband in the media.
Further, in the e-mailed statement - which was widely circulated to media organizations and posted to a website established to promote the activities of the Tyendinaga protesters - Sue Collis accused the provincial police and OPP commissioner Julian Fantino with issuing "numerous public statements that have wildly and, it seems, purposefully misstated the events leading to my husband's arrest, and sought to vilify and criminalize (sic) him personally."
In the most jarring accusation, Collis said police officers "threatened to slit his throat and cut off his head" when Brant was arrested and taken to Napanee OPP detachment two weeks ago.
By issuing such statements, Collis could have seriously damaged her husband's chances in court, a noted Toronto criminal lawyer says.
"As the wife of Shawn Brant, Sue Collis enjoys a special protection," Lenny Hochberg said. "More specifically she is not a compellable witness against her husband in a Canadian Court of Law. All conversations between husband and wife are privileged. That being said, the Crown could argue that by making a public statement she unilaterally waived her privilege and should be ordered to testify for the Crown against her husband.
"The Crown will want her to testify as to what information she has and from whom it was received."
Brant, who has been in custody since his arrest April 25, is expected to be in Napanee court today for a bail hearing on assault and drug charges - less than a month after he was acquitted of uttering death threats against Canadian soldiers in Deseronto on Nov. 15, 2006 during a native demonstration.
When contacted about Collis' allegations, OPP spokeswoman Sgt. Kristine Rae said Brant's charges were before the criminal justice system, which would ultimately determine the validity of the allegations the protester faces.
"The processes are before the court ... and we can't comment on an ongoing criminal process," she said. "We present the information to the courts and it's up to the courts to decide."
Local Crown prosecutors also declined to comment on the statements issued and posted on the website by Collis, stating it wouldn't be appropriate.
Brant, 44, whose arrest the afternoon of April 25 sparked the fiery encounter between police and other protesters, is facing charges including assault with a weapon, mischief under $5,000, breach of recognizance, possession of a controlled substance and carrying weapons dangerous to the public peace.
The charges stem from an incident on the same day native blockades went up around the Town of Deseronto in late April, although in past media releases, police said the occurrence "was not related to protest activity."
However, Collis' e-mail argues Brant's arrest was directly related to an encounter between protesters and two Deseronto residents at a road blockade just outside of Deseronto.
She listed details of protesters' versions of the events that led to Brant's arrest - including the names of the complainants - while also taking aim at the Crown prosecutors.
"It is our understanding that the prosecution is seeking yet another publication ban on all future court proceedings," Collis wrote.
"The police and prosecution make sensational and vilifying statements about Shawn in the media, and then seek a publication ban during court proceedings, when actual evidence is introduced.
"The starkly different narrative of events that emerges in court is withheld and the public forbidden from hearing it. The version of events I have just presented will all but disappear."
In criminal trials in the preliminary stages - including bail or preliminary hearings - publication bans on any evidence presented in the proceedings are automatically applied by the judge or presiding justice of the peace only if requested by the defendant.
If the Crown asks for a ban, it is at the discretion of the presiding judge whether or not a ban will be granted.
In this case, media law specialist Brian Rogers doubted Collis' statement would have any impact on future proceedings involving the charges.
"I would doubt that it would have any impact on the eventual fair trial of the charges against Shawn Brant," said Rogers, a veteran Toronto-based lawyer.
"The Supreme Court of Canada has made it very clear that judges aren't going to be influenced by any sort of publiicty," he added.
Rogers said Brant himself can ask the proceedings at the bail hearing be heard in open court - which has occurred during at least one of his previous bail hearings involving criminal charges.
But Hochberg, a member of the Criminal Lawyers Association, had a different opinion.
He said Collis' statement could take away what is called an identity defence from her husband.
"At such an early stage of the proceedings the lawyer/accused would not have the ability to completely form their defence strategy," said Hochberg, whose practice has focused on criminal defence litigation and quasi-criminal law.
"By making the statement, the wife may have potentially closed doors to defences that Mr. Brant could have availed himself to. As an example, there may have been an issue of identity of the person who committed the alleged offence.
"If the complainants could not identify Shawn Brant as the person who was at the crime scene, the allegations would not have been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. But, now that Sue Collis has made a statement it could potentially be linked back to Shawn Brant, possibly taking away the defence of identity."
In most circumstances, evidence presented under a publication ban is later introduced during a trial. If the case is resolved before making it to trial, then all of the testimony and evidence heard during proceedings held under a publication ban becomes public information.
Following a three-day preliminary inquiry in Napanee earlier this year, Brant was committed to stand trial in 2009 on charges in connection to last June's national day of action blockades of Highway 401 and railway lines.