Toronto grocer trial stalls for lack of interpreter

The trial of a Toronto grocer charged with assaulting and illegally confining a thief in his storecame to a sudden haltMonday becausethe presiding judgedetermined the Mandarin interpreter was not up to therequired standard.

David Chen and two employees his cousin and his nephew arecharged with assault and forcible confinement.

Thecasereceived national attention when they were arrested in May 2009 after catching a manwho had tried to steal from Chen's store in the downtown Chinatown district.

On Monday, shortly after the trial began, Ontario provincial court Judge Ramez Khawly told the courtthe Chinese interpreter was not qualified.

"His Honour had said there was not a fully accredited Mandarin interpreter in Ontario, which seems to me to be ridiculous, given there is a large Chinese community," said Peter Lindsay, the lawyer representing the three defendants.

"People have a basic right under Section 14 of the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms]to have proper interpretation."

Khawly told the court there are three conditionally accreditedMandarin court interpreters in Ontario but noneare in Toronto and none were available Monday.

However later in Monday, the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General,contradicted that figure and saidthere are only two conditionally accredited Mandarin interpreters in the province.

Courtwas told theservices of one of those conditionally accredited interpreters has been secured for Wednesday, when the trial is set to continue.

Conditional accreditation is granted to individualswho have taken the province's interpreter exam butdid not achieve the mark of 70 per cent required for full accreditation.

"It's disturbing that the judge suggests that a conditionally accredited interpreter should be used when what that means is that that's an interpreter who failed the examination didn't reach the 70 per cent that is required,"provincial NDP justice critic Peter Kormos said outside the courthouse. "That's disturbing in and of itself."

New accreditation model

Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General,wrote in an email that "the Court of Appeal has said that lack of accreditation in and of itself does not mean that a person is not a qualified interpreter."

He said theOntario government is "working hard to improve court interpretation across the province." Headded the government is implementing a new accreditation model designed to "ensure Ontario remains a leader in interpretation."

Of the 226people who havetaken the court interpretationtest under the new model, 47 have been accredited while 73 are partially accredited, Crawley said.

Around 700 people across the province have been accredited as court interpreters under the old rules, he said.

A conditionally accredited Cantonese interpreter was translating fortwo of the accused Chen, 37, and Qing Li, 41. The third accused, Jie Chen, 22, needsa Mandarin interpreter.

Thief jailed

The charges against the three men stem from a May 23, 2009, incident in whichDavid Chen, owner of the Lucky Moose Food Mart on Dundas Street West, apprehended a man he believed was stealing plants from his store.

Anthony Bennett pleaded guilty in August 2009 to stealing from the store and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

After Bennett was initially caught on security footage stealing from the store, he returned an hour later. At that time, proprietor Chen and two employees tied up the man and locked him in the back of a delivery van.

When police arrived, they charged Chen with kidnapping, carrying a dangerous weapon a box cutter assault and forcible confinement.

Prosecutors later dropped the kidnapping and weapon counts,but proceeded with the charges of forcible confinement and assault.

According to the Criminal Code, a property owner canmake a citizen's arrest only if the alleged wrongdoer is caught in the act.Lindsay, the defence lawyer,is arguingthat this provision is too restrictive.

"In this particular case, Mr. Chen had reasonable grounds to believe Mr. Bennett had stolen from him an hour earlier because he had video of Mr. Bennett stealing from him," Lindsay said. "And the fact that he didn't actually catch him in the act seems to me not to be important."

Politicians of all stripes have aligned themselves with Chen in the case.

Olivia Chow, the New Democrat MP for Trinity-Spadina, where Chen's store is situated, tabled a bill last Wednesday in the Commons that would allow store owners to apprehend suspected shoplifters "within a reasonable period" after the alleged crime. Liberal MP Joe Volpe tabled a similar private member's bill in the summer.

Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney toured Chen's storein September of last year and saidshopkeepers should be able to use "reasonable means" to protect their property.