David Lindsay at a political action rally in March, 2024.

(MARSHALL JONES / iNFOnews.ca)

Judge Cathaline Heinrichs gave no hint of any reaction — none — as she heard a man before her on a contempt of court charge say she “didn’t know what the heck she was doing.”

The man before her was notorious anti-authority protester David Lindsay. He was charged with contempt of court earlier in his contentious sentencing hearing for assault and Thursday afternoon in Provincial Court was his opportunity to walk away from the new charge free of penalty.

He simply had to apologize for refusing a direct order of the court and in the process make Heinrichs believe he’s capable of following future orders with big personal stakes for him. It could be the difference between imprisonment and being trusted to serve his sentences under house arrest.

Crown prosecutor Dave Grabavac wanted to ensure Heinrichs was unmoved by Lindsay's “Unreserved Letter of Apology”. Against a self-represented litigant, he turned the knife and played a video of an interview Lindsay gave with Action4Canada, a far right conspiracy theorist organization, to present what Lindsay really thought of the judge.

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It was clearly a surprise to Lindsay, who stood up to object when Grabavac mentioned it. Lindsay has long held himself as a kind of legal expert which is what thrust him to the front of the freedom rallies in Kelowna over pandemic measures. It gave him a following and made him popular with organizations like Action4Canada and anyone else looking for any reason to defy health orders.

In the early 2000s, Lindsay was advising anyone who would listen that they didn’t have to pay taxes, sounding learned about the law with theories similar to the Freemen-on-the-land movement, though without many takers. Now, when he shows up for court, he has had more than a dozen people in the gallery, doing prayer circles and often earning warnings from sheriffs like “keep your comments to yourselves.”

According to his Action4Canada bio, Lindsay is founder of Common Law Education and Rights which “focuses on a correct understanding and application of common law."

“David has also written one of the only books in Canada on how a citizen can lay a private information (criminal charges) against another individual without involving the police.”

“Is any of this going on the record?” Lindsay rose to ask Judge Heinrichs, before Grabavac could read reveal Lindsay’s words in the video.

“Is any of this going on the record?” she said. “I’m not understanding what you’re suggesting. We’re not going off the record... we’re in court.”

READ MORE: 'INCENDIARY': Crown wants protestor David Lindsay in jail for a year

Grabavac continued and later played the video. In the video, Lindsay has just explained to Tanya Gaw, host of “Empower Hour”, why he shouldn’t have been found guilty.

“And despite that, Judge Heinrichs, who is a family law judge, she has no criminal experience at all, entered a finding of guilt….,” he says. “The Crown and its witnesses… controlled the judge the entire trial. It was just disgusting. I'd ask questions, the Crown would stand up and answer them because the judge didn't know what the heck she was doing. But she was ordered to convict at any cost.”

Then for good measure, if not relevance, Grabavac played host Tanya Gar’s thoughts on the main witness and complainant in Lindsay’s assault charge for touching a security guard blocking him from entering a Ministry of Health building on Doyle Avenue amid the pandemic.

“And as far as (the complainant) is concerned, you, sir, should be ashamed of yourself. I don't even know how you can show your face in public, you wear a mask out of shame because you look like a fool with a mask on and… maybe you can't read but the box says they don't work. And as far as this is concerned, is this your legacy sir? Is this what you're going to go down for? Because your face is out there now, people know who you are and it is disgusting behaviour. This is not, this is not manly behaviour.”

The Crown asked Heinrichs to uphold the contempt of court charge and put Lindsay in jail for four months. That’s in addition to the one-year prison sentence the Crown sought for assault.

Lindsay continued his argument he has used from the beginning, that his prosecution is political.

“The fact that the Crown is ‘scrolling’ the internet everywhere, trying to find anything that they can about me tells me that there's an agenda.”

He suggested an absolute or conditional discharge for the assault and to be purged of the contempt charge.

He will be sentenced July 10.

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