What to know about the trial
Good morning. I’m John Mazerolle, a senior producer in P.E.I. and I’m running today’s live page.
Testimony in the trial for an Ontario couple charged in the death of one boy and what Crown prosecutors have alleged was the torture of his brother in their care is expected to wrap today.
Proceedings in the Ontario Superior Court trial, which began in mid-September in Milton, are set to resume at 9 a.m. ET with co-accused Becky Hamber in the witness box for a sixth day.
Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers have questioned Hamber, 46, about the way she and wife Brandy Cooney treated the brothers in their care. Hamber has maintained she loved and did nothing to hurt the boys as they were going through the adoption process.
The Indigenous boys’ identities are protected under a publication ban. CBC News is referring to the older boy, who was 12 when he died in 2022, as L.L. His younger brother, now 13, is referred to as J.L.
Hamber and Cooney, 44, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder of L.L., as well as not guilty to confinement, assault with a weapon — zip ties — and failing to provide the necessaries of life to J.L. The judge-alone trial, which began in mid-September, is before Justice Clayton Conlan.
Final arguments are expected in March.
