# Does anyone know how Canadian criminal court works for this scenario?



## ironpony (Dec 27, 2016)

I tried doing research and asking some online lawyers on forums, but all the sites are American law based it seems, and I cannot find a Canadian law one that deals with writers asking questions, as oppose to lawyers only wanting to talk to real clients.

I was thinking of setting the story in my home country Canada, perhaps.  Basically in the story, a woman was rescued from a kidnapping, but she will not testify against her alleged captors.  The police want to her to, cause it's an ambitious case, and her testimony can tie it together. Now in the US, a prosecutor could subpoena her to testify at a grand jury hearing.  These hearings are not open to the public, and it's for the prosecutor to hear what she has to say.

However, in Canada, there are no grand jury hearings, and they instead of have preliminary hearings.  I read that they are open to the public.  However, if this is true, how does a prosecutor in Canada find out what a witness will say on the stand, without the public hearing about?  The kidnappers who were not caught could just walk into the courtroom as onlookers and find out what she will say therefore.  Plus if she is not a credible witness, the case could be more damaged if her testimony is made public.

So in Canada, how do prosecutors find out what an uncooperative witness will say on the stand, if they cannot subpoena them to testify without the public knowing about it?  Does anyone know by any chance?


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## Sleepwriter (Dec 28, 2016)

So I guess this will start your round of questions all over since you have changed countries?    I would assume there are some similarities, but as you already pointed out there are differences to.


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## ironpony (Dec 28, 2016)

I don't think that changing countries will make that much of a difference since Canadian law is incredibly similar and nearly identical for the most part.  I checked over all of the plot and this is the only difference it seems that is siginificant.


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## Sleepwriter (Dec 29, 2016)

If that is the only difference then look it up, or better yet go to the court house and talk to a prosecutor or two.


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## SystemCheck (Dec 29, 2016)

....

http://lawstudents.ca/forums/

http://legal.advicescene.com/ca


If you are looking for just clarification the above is more than useful.


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