Sometimes, really important things can be extremely boring. It's the newsmaker's conundrum: we want to tell you about, say, the latest developments in the trial of Byron Sonne, accused of stockpiling explosives in advance of last year's G20 summit in Toronto, but click-throughs show more readers want to see Calgary's mayor Photoshopped onto the cover of a teen magazine.
We're not judging you, we're just saying. We understand it's confusing to sit through stories about "severance," meaning whether Superior Court Justice Nancy Spies can excise the unlawful parts of the warrant for Sonne's home, but leave the justifiable bits to stand. It's hard to stay awake through a full day on "voluntariness", meaning whether anything Sonne said to a police officer who kept mentioning the bail status of Sonne's wife, also arrested at the time, is admissible in court.
For those who want more, check out the hour-long interrogation of Sonne by Officer Tam Bui, which happened four days after his arrest. For those who like it short and sweet, the most interesting quote this week came from Crown Attorney Stephen Byrne. (See, lots of stuff that was discussed during the preliminary hearing is still covered by a publication ban, but if lawyers mention it in court, it becomes fair game.)
We're happy to tell you that this week, when speaking about the search-and-seizure in Sonne's home, Byrne referenced the computer security consultant's interest in science. One of the police officers on the stand, Alvin Maniquis, spoke about authorizing his team to take books on physics and chemistry.
"Essentially," said Byrne,"[Sonne]'s got a home lab, related books and documentation. He's got chemistry equipment....admittedly, they had not been put together."
So, now you know: three days before the start of the G20 summit, when arrested for possessing explosives meant to disrupt that summit, Sonne hadn't set up his beakers and bunsen burners.
That's all for now.
