Toronto Criminal Lawyer - Charges of Perjury withdrawn

Kyle's Case — Perjury — Withdrawn

Client:   Kyle M., Accused
Complainant:   Paul C., Kyle's Tenant
Charge:   Perjury, Criminal Code, s. 131 (Landlord and Tenant Dispute)

Background: Kyle was a professor, originally from Pakistan, but then a resident of Ottawa and about to assume a teaching position at a university in West Virginia. He had a wife and a delightful three-year old daughter. He had purchased a home, and was unable to move in because of his career commitments. He decided to rent the home. He had the misfortune to rent to what I will call a "professional tenant" — a person that seeks out inexperienced landlords, moves in, makes just the first payment (if that), and then uses his or her almost-expert knowledge of the landlord-and-tenant procedures to drag out the inevitable eviction. Kyle did manage to get the tenant evicted. The matter became criminal when the tenant reported to the police that Kyle had filed a false affidavit as part of the landlord-and-tenant proceedings. Kyle was charged with perjury. He was arrested and released on 31 July 2002.

Goals: Kyle rightly felt that he had been wrongly accused, and wanted to have the charge withdrawn or dismissed at trial. Time was of the essence. Kyle needed to cross the border for his employment. His arrest was not long after the September 11th tragedy, and, without getting too sidetracked, let's just say that Kyle was attracting much attention every time he entered the United States, often being subjected to hours-long interviews about his country of origin, his need to come to the United States, and the perjury charge. My goal was to get the charge withdrawn as soon as possible.

Strategy: Kyle came into my office well prepared. He had a pile of other Court documents (about 8 inches high) showing the other landlord-and-tenant cases involving this tenant. These documents demonstrated that this tenant would do whatever possible to prolong eviction proceedings. One of his stratagems was what I will call the "false affidavit attack" — when about to be evicted, he would file a motion before the appropriate tribunal or Court alleging that the landlord had filed a false affidavit. This would often delay the eviction, as there would have to be a hearing to determine if the affidavit was, in fact, false. Kyle and I discussed strategy. We could have scheduled the matter for trial, but this would take 12 to 18 months in Halton Region, and Kyle was worried about the delay and his inability to traverse the border. I was reluctant to provide the Crown with our documents, as we had no obligation to provide them in advance. In the end, we made a tactical decision to disclose everything we had in the hope of convincing the Crown not to proceed. On 29 October 2002, I sent the Crown detailed written submissions along with 102 pages of supporting documentation.

Results: When I attended Court on November 14th — just over two weeks later — we still had not received a response. However, on that day I did meet with the Crown assigned to review the matter. The charge was withdrawn that morning.