CONTEMPT — Criminal contempt — Alleged improper pressure applied to a defendant to inhibit him or attempt to inhibit him from defending these proceedings — Whether conduct proved beyond reasonable doubt — Whether real and definite tendency to interfere with the course of justice in these proceedings
Quick Take
1A party who engages a third party to exert pressure on an opposing litigant through disruption of that litigant's commercial interests — here, orchestrating motorcycle gang members to blockade a construction site — commits criminal contempt where the conduct has a real and definite tendency to interfere with the course of justice by pressuring the opponent to abandon their defence.
2In a circumstantial contempt case, the court applies the Baden-Clay standard: the inference of guilt must be the only rational inference open on all the evidence considered as a whole, and alternative hypotheses that amount to mere speculation or conjecture are rejected.
3The absence of any response by the contemnor to a communication evidencing the fruits of the improper pressure, considered together with the contemnor's admitted engagement of the intermediary on account of 'industry or union ties' irrelevant to the legal issues in dispute, was a significant circumstance supporting the inference of intention and knowledge beyond reasonable doubt.
