Two people charged with harassing the premier and his family with a convoy protest outside their home in July made first appearances in provincial court on Thursday.
But their lawyer says it’s all a waste of valuable court time and public money.
Forty-seven-year-old Dana Metcalfe and 34-year-old Shane Sweeney are both charged with criminal harassment and causing a disturbance.
It stems from their role in a “surprise” convoy protest outside Premier Andrew Furey’s home in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s on July 9.
Videos posted at the time show a line of vehicles complete with smoke flares and people shouting through a megaphone against the “sexualization and indoctrination” of children in schools.
In court yesterday, the Crown said the case will have to be farmed out to Nova Scotia due to conflicts with prosecutors here.
The potential cost of that is just one problem defence lawyer Averill Baker has with the case.
She claims the charges are over the top, saying the goal was to “kick up a stink,” not threaten anyone.
Baker wonders if it’s even in the public interest for the case to proceed. But for now it will, on November 2, when Metcalfe and Sweeney are due to enter pleas to the charges.
