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Ghomeshi’s bail relaxed before trial: report

[Ex-CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi leaves a Toronto courthouse with his lawyer Marie Henein, right, following Day 6 of his trial on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young]

One legal expert said it wasn’t surprising that Jian Ghomeshi’s bail conditions were reportedly relaxed in the past year as the former CBC radio host awaited his trial for sexual assault.

Ghomeshi was compelled to live with his mother and turn over his passport after being charged in January 2015 with several counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking in connection with allegations from three women dating back more than a decade.

According to the website Canadaland, the conditions of Ghomeshi’s bail were changed twice, once to allow him to move back into his own house and a second time to allow him to travel outside of the country.

Toronto-based criminal lawyer Yoni Rahamim, who has no connection to the Ghomeshi case, said the bail variations were very ordinary despite the high-profile nature of the case and the seriousness of the allegations.

“You have a person coming before the court with no criminal history, to my knowledge, no history of violating any court orders, who has never been on bail before,” Rahamim said.

Because the rules around bail include the presumption of innocence and Ghomeshi has a clean record, Rahamim said, it’s unlikely that the Crown prosecutor would oppose minor changes to the bail conditions.

“And everybody has the right to reasonable bail, unless its shown why they don’t have the right to reasonable bail,” he said.

More strict conditions, such as preventing the accused from being alone with women or requiring them to report their daily movements, are only used in extreme cases that feature vulnerable victims or abuse of a position of trust, he said.

“When you have an adult male and an adult female and there’s no history of dependency, you wouldn’t see a condition like that come into play,” Rahamim said.

According to court documents published by Canadaland, Ghomeshi received approval in May to live at a different address than his mother, though it had to be approved by her.

In July, he received approval to leave the province and the country for two trips,­ from Aug. 31 to Sept. 15 as well as Oct. 26 to Dec. 7.

The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, which oversees the province’s criminal court, did not respond to a request for comment.

The first of Ghomeshi’s trials wrapped up at a Toronto courthouse on Thursday, with a verdict due by March 24, and he will face a second trial in June in relation to a separate charge of sexual assault dating to 2008.

Rahamim said that the swift trial, which lasted eight days after being originally scheduled to run for nearly three weeks, suggested the case may not have gone the way the Crown had planned.

“It’s pretty astounding to me,” he said. “Nobody expected his lawyers to attack and, some have said, discredit and undercut the witnesses so quickly.”

The case highlights the difference between the justice system and Ghomeshi’s trial by media, Rahamim said.

For many people, he said, the outcome of the case doesn’t matter because the damage to Ghomeshi’s reputation has already been done.

“If he gets acquitted, you’ll have an enormous segment of the population saying he’s been acquitted by the court of law but that’s not saying he didn’t do it,” he said.

Rahamim said he always tells his clients that if they’re seeking revenge, satisfaction or closure, they won’t find it in the criminal justice system.

“Our system isn’t constructed to do that,” he said. “It’s constructed to prove if someone did something beyond a reasonable doubt. You might think somebody is probably guilty, you might think they probably did something, but that’s not beyond a reasonable doubt.”