MONTREAL—The judge presiding over the criminal case against Richard Bain has imposed a surprising publication ban that some lawyers have labeled extraordinary.
Judge Pierre Labelle had initially agreed to a temporary media ban for the first two days of the inquiry. On Friday, he extended it to cover the entire preliminary hearing and even included his own judgment as part of the publication ban.
“Normally a publication ban at a preliminary hearing covers only the evidence, it does not cover the judgments that are rendered in the course of the preliminary inquiry,” lawyer Mark Bantey, who is representing several media organizations, said. “So in that sense it is unusual.”
Bain faces 16 charges including first-degree murder. The 62-year-old is accused of perpetrating the Sept. 4 attack at Montreal’s Metropolis Theatre, where the Parti Quebcois' election night celebration ended with a man left dead.
