You don’t often hear Crown Counsel groveling before a court but that’s just what’s going on as the Truscott hearing wraps up. The Crown is pleading to the Ontario Court of Appeal to order a retrial rather than acquit Truscott while admitting there will be no retrial if ordered because too many witnesses are now gone.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has given the Crown a good mauling in the course of this hearing and I think there’s a good chance they may actually grant Truscott’s request that they find him “innocent”.

The Court said that the very fact that then Justice Minister Irwin Cotler ordered the review shows he must have wanted the judges to go as far as they deemed necessary in the interests of justice.

“To that extent, doesn’t the integrity of the system require a fulsome, broad examination of the new evidence, to put to rest the questions raised by the minister?” Judge Doherty asked.