CALGARY — A political activist can’t be convicted of assaulting Premier Ed Stelmach’s guard with a pie because her intended target was the premier himself, her lawyer argued Wednesday.
Defence counsel Mark Takada said Lily Phan should never have been charged with attacking Sheriff Hady Hammoud with pie filling because he wasn’t her mark.
“She’s guilty of an attempted assault on Mr. Stelmach, that’s the appropriate resolution, the appropriate charge in this case,” Takada told provincial court Judge Bill Cummings.
“You charge them with the appropriate charge,” said Takada, arguing for an acquittal against his client.
“It ... does not make sense to convict a person of something they did not intend to do.”
But acting chief Crown prosecutor Lloyd Robertson said Phan should be found guilty of all five charges she faces in an incident at the premier’s Stampede breakfast in 2007.
Phan is accused of assaulting a peace officer, common assault, assault to resist arrest, mischief and causing a disturbance.
She was arrested July 9, 2007, after lunging at Stelmach with a fistful of chocolate cream filling as the premier flipped pancakes at his annual Stampede party. He was untouched by the creamy filling.
Robertson told Cummings the concept of transferred intent — in which you are guilty of assaulting one person if you intended to assault another — is well-established law.
He also said Phan was guilty of causing a disturbance by screaming as she was being taken down after her lunge at the premier, and of mischief for disrupting the breakfast.
But Takada said his client simply yelled, “it’s a pie, not a bomb” to avoid being roughed up during her arrest.
Cummings will hand down a verdict on June 26.