Boycott leaves accused gunman lawyer-less
Last Updated: Saturday, October 3, 2009 | 5:48 PM ET
CBC News
Gutu Daoud, 20, was arrested Wednesday at the Ottawa airport. (Ottawa Police Service)An Ottawa man has no defence lawyer to help him face charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault in a double shooting, in light of an ongoing legal aid boycott in Ontario.
Gutu Osman Daoud, 20, appeared in court Thursday without legal representation, following his arrest the day before at the Ottawa airport. He is accused of shooting a 24-year-old doorman and a 51-year-old customer outside the NuDen strip club in Ottawa's east end on July 5.
Daoud is believed to be one of the first people affected by a lawyers' boycott of legal aid cases involving clients facing murder, and gangs and guns charges. Ottawa lawyers decided in August to join the boycott being advocated by the Criminal Lawyers' Association in an effort to push the province to boost legal aid funding.
Lawyers in Toronto and Kingston were already participating.
Natasha Calvinho, the Ottawa defence lawyer who has represented Daoud in the past, showed up at Daoud's hearing as a "friend of the court," which means that she wasn't being paid and her comments were not on the record.
The boycott means she can't do things that she might otherwise do as his lawyer.
'There can be no real progress in the case'
Natasha Calvinho said the boycott means that she can't do things she would otherwise do as Daoud's lawyer, such as setting a bail hearing. (CBC)"I'm not in a position to where I can set a bail hearing," she said Friday. "I'm not in a position where I can go out to the detention centre and review disclosure …There can be no real progress in the case."
However, she said she appeared because the charges were serious and she wanted to indicate that she would normally represent him, if not for the boycott.
Daoud is due back in court next week. Calvinho said his options now are to:
- Represent himself.
- Get his family to scrape up their own money to pay for a lawyer.
- Apply to the court or the attorney-general for funding to pay for counsel.
When asked if she was torn by the consequences for defendants like Daoud in, Calvinho responded, "Absolutely not …I appreciate the position that they're in, but I also know the position that I'm personally in, that my colleagues are in … when trying to scrape together money for mortgages, money for rent, money to pay for our assistants, taxes that have to be paid out."
She added that defence lawyers feel they have no choice but to do something that will get them noticed, as legal aid is not being funded adequately compared to other parts of the justice system.
For example, she said, she would be paid only two hours to represent Daoud at his bail hearing, even though the case is so complex that she would need to put in up to 20 hours of work to do a good job.
