Despite the time to prepare, Boswick was still asking for testimony and evidence in the days leading up to the trial, and even during the trial itself.
In a video published to YouTube on August 3, Boswick claimed he was accepting testimony to present to the court regarding antifa. Boswick made it clear that, to him, this was less about the charges before the court and more about his own personal mission to "take down antifa."
Still from the August 2 video - YouTube
Due to the pandemic the court proceedings were available virtually and we at ARC were able to attend. Recording was strictly prohibited.
According to the Crown, Boswick had initially agreed during the pre-trial hearing that the full 90-minute video was not relevant to his defense, so the clip that clocks in at around 2 minutes and 45 seconds was used. Unfortunately, at day 1 of the trial, Boswick had changed his mind, claiming it was necessary for the judge to view the full video.
Boswick argued this for all three days of his trial - at one point even telling the judge that he had edited a 22 minute version which "takes out the drunkenness" for his review. This was denied, and by the end of the third day, the judge had still not reviewed the video, which the Crown argued was unnecessary.
Perhaps the most damaging aspect of Boswick's defense were his witnesses. Initially calling on Kevin Johnston, who last year lost a lawsuit to philanthropist Mohamad Fakih for defamation and who is currently facing hate charges. Johnston, as it turns out, has a court order prohibiting him from engaging with chat rooms and social media - interesting, since he spent much of this year masquerading as a ex-Muslim woman named Mary on Twitter. Johnston expressed concern over his involvement due to this court order, and was directed by the judge to confirm with his counsel, and appear at a later date.
Next Boswick called Jack Reynolds, who couldn't answer any of Boswick's questions and seemed to be under the impression that this was his chance to have antifascists charged who he felt had assaulted him. As Boswick had basically billed this as Boswick v. Antifa, Battle Royale, one can understand Jack's confusion.
Sandra Solomon was then brought in to testify. When Boswick attempted to use Solomon as a character witness, the court dismissed the attempt. When Solomon was asked about their work together and how many views Boswick's videos had, the court dismissed it as irrelevant. When they railed against antifa, and tried to essentially put antifa on trial, the judge again dismissed that as irrelevant to the charges before the court.
Perhaps most damning was that when the crown read the portion of the video in which the threats were made against Metcalf and asked whether she felt that was a threat, Solomon agreed that yes, it is a threat. She then followed up by excusing it as Boswick was drunk.
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