Decision in free press case set for Jun.8

Judge's decision awaited with great interest in the journalistic world.

It was a furious onslaught from an unlikely source. Like most trial lawyers at his level, James Lockyer, the lawyer for Robert Baltovich, who goes on retrial in the Elizabeth Bain murder case in the fall, and the reason Finkle is in court, isn't known for emotional outbursts. But as the second day of hearings dragged on, exasperated at the Crown's grabbing at straws, Lockyer opened up with both barrels. In a fiery attack on the Crown's attempt to subpoena all the research material used by writer Derek Finkle for his book, No Claim to Mercy, he pretty much dared the Crown to put his man in the witness stand. "This entire application is an act of desperation," Mr. Lockyer said. "They want to get their hands on something - anything - to recreate their case against Mr. Finkle. They are looking for something they can distort, and I say that from experience, into some way of showing that Mr. Baltovich is guilty." "Mr Finkle's book is a litany of the many reasons he has for believing Baltovitch innocent, backed up by solid evidence, so I can't understand under what circumstances the Crown would think it to their advantage to put Mr. Finkle and his book on the stand". Mr. Lockyer described the case as a waste of the court's time and "much ado about nothing", noting the police had much more evidence gathering time with Mr. Baltovitch and stressing that that Mr. Finkle's book contains nothing that can't be found in trial transcripts. He added with brutal logic that if he thought there was any chance anything in Mr. Finkle's notes would sidetrack the Crown's single-minded pursuit of Mr. Baltovich, he would be beseeching Mr. Finkle to hand over the material and clear his client once and for all. Mr. Baltovich is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bain, 22, who disappeared from a University of Toronto campus one evening and was never seen again. Arrested after a lengthy police investigation, Mr. Baltovich was convicted of second-degree murder in 1992. He won a retrial in 2004. The retrial is scheduled to begin in September. The reek of desperation neared toxic levels when the Crown dragged the very nature of friendship into the fray. The re-definition of "friendship" was introduced as a way of casting discredit on the material generated during the Baltovitch/Finkle interviews. The Crown seemed to think that he who is not a hostile interviewer is a friend. Iain MacKinnon, Finkle's lawyer, acknowledges the writer/subject can be a tricky and friendly-seeming one, but in this particular case, it is not a true friendship, as there isn't the level of commitment where either party owes allegiance to the other. With that, the hearing ended in a draw. A decision will be handed down June 8.