JUDGE WHO CURSED IN COURT TO PRESIDE AT RARE SESSION

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Peter Leask will preside over a rare
special sitting of the court this morning at which he is expected to
comment on the controversy over profane remarks he made from the bench
earlier this week.

Chief Justice Donald Brenner said the sitting, which will be open to
the public, will occur at 11:30 a.m. at the Vancouver Law Courts.

Brenner would not comment further on what is expected to take
place.

But both Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers involved in the trial
of accused cocaine trafficker and Hells Angel Glen Jonathan Hehn have
been asked to attend.

Hehn was acquitted by Leask on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Ernie Froess was in the middle of his final arguments in
the case Tuesday when Leask swore on four occasions.

A group of schoolchildren on an educational tour was in the courtroom
during the exchange.

Froess said Thursday that he would attend as requested, but did not
know what to expect.

He said a special sitting of the court is extremely
rare.

"Certainly in my experience it has never happened to me in the 12
years I have been a counsel," Froess said.

Brenner told The Sun Wednesday that he could not comment specifically
on what Leask said, not having seen the transcript of the comments.

"I will first of all try to find out what occurred," Brenner said. "I
haven't seen the transcript and I don't know the context and I am not
in a position to comment one way or the other, not having seen it, or
heard it or read it."

Hehn and co-accused Ewan Lilford were arrested in July 2003 after
police said they watched as the pair loaded some boxes from a storage
locker rented by Hehn into Lilford's truck. Police found 52 kilos of
cocaine in the truck and the locker worth $1.5 million.

During his closing, Froess was arguing that cocaine would not have
been in Hehn's locker without his knowledge, given that he is a
full-patch Hells Angels with the elite Nomads chapter.

Leask strongly disagreed: "But to be really clear, he'd have had to
have been out of his f. . .in' mind to store it in his own locker, all
right? I mean, that's for sure he wouldn't do that. Let's not spend
any time on that theory."

Leask also commented on the mindset of Lilford, who did not testify at
trial, by saying: "On the one hand, he can minimize his risk of
detection and apprehension by just aborting the whole f. . .ing thing,
right?"

Leask also used "goddamned" and "shit" during the course of the
morning session.

Attorney-General Wally Oppal, who praised Leask to The Sun, admitted
that "most judges would not express themselves that way."

"But I am not going to second-guess Peter Leask," Oppal said.