Miriam Yaniv appeared in court today, Feb 6, 2023, with an application to modify the bail conditions that previously prevented her from going home to her own residence. Miriam, her lawyer, Crown, and the Judge all attending in person, along with a voice-to-text (and back) translator for Miriam Yaniv’s benefit.
After weighing several factors (which I will list below) the Judge stated she had no choice but to leave the existing conditions in place for Miriam Yaniv’s release. That is, she is not permitted entry into the building where her condo is. This was for the safety of the residents and to minimize the risk of Miriam Yaniv re-offending, which the Judge said was substantial.
Keep in mind today’s hearing was only for a bail review. Miriam Yaniv has not even entered a plea in response to these charges yet, although Jon previously told the court that Miriam intends to plead not guilty and request the charges be dismissed due to a claimed Charter violation.
Miriam’s attorney spoke first. She claimed the following:
- Miriam Yaniv agreed to the initial conditions thinking they would only be a couple days and she could stay at Jon’s.
- It didn’t work out to stay at Jon’s, and hotels became expensive with her $2,200/month income.
- Miriam allegedly spent one night wandering the streets because her child wouldn’t take her in.
- Ilana Altmann, Miriam’s sister, allegedly needs Miriam’s support for a long list of medical conditions.
- Miriam herself (allegedly) has a long list of medical conditions that, because of her displacement, are worsened.
- Claimed that Miriam’s bail conditions have made her suicidal.
Crown followed with these statements:
- Miriam is a danger to the approximately 150 residents of the building. She told a firefighter she was going to burn the building down, and the Township of Langley is threatening to charge the strata for alarm responses.
- None of Miriam’s claims were substantiated by evidence.
- When Miriam was arrested, she claimed to be having chest pains. She was checked out by doctors, deemed fit for cells, and held overnight by police. She was released the next afternoon.
- Releasing Miriam into the condo again would introduce significant risk to other residents.
- There was no material change to Miriam’s life or conditions now compared to when she agreed to the conditions.
The Judge’s comments included:
- Noting that none of Miriam’s claims of hardship were supported by evidence.
- Gave consideration to the idea of allowing Miriam in to her condo on house arrest to help Ilana, but pointed out she would be ineffective at providing support if she was on house arrest.
- Stated that there were no other options available to her other than leaving the existing order in place.
- Agreed that allowing her back in the strata would be a risk to residents.
With the above in mind, the Judge dismissed Miriam’s application to vary her bail conditions and be allowed to return to her home. This gives the other residents some much-needed peace of mind, as it may be months before this is revisited.
Due to time, I have to leave this where it is now but I will provide more details tomorrow. Watch for a MeowMix update tomorrow!
Update: Hearing Notes
The notes below are from our sources that attended yesterdays hearing. A huge thank you to everyone! Sharing notes for everyone’s enjoyment.
- Rexy was with Jon, but Jon was ordered to keep Rexy quiet and on the floor. Rexy was still poorly behaved. sprawled out between benches, whining, and rolling around.
- When Miriam sat down, she put a Starbucks drink and a bottle of pills on the ledge for all to see.
- Crown stated that on Jan 20, 2023, Miriam told a firefighter that she wanted to burn the building to the ground.
- Defense described Miriam as a 69 year old widow living on a $2,200 month pension.
- Claims Miriam’s condo is modified with safety and medical devices for Ilana.
- Judge told Defense that her power to change the bail order was limited. This hearing was to review what Defense claimed were material changes to Miriam’s conditions, not an appeal or a trial. The Judge repeatedly states this to the Defense, telling them to show her the material changes to Miriam’s circumstances.
- Defense argues that Miriam is suicidal.
- Crown states that they have CCTV evidence of Miriam destroying property in a common room at the strata.
- Crown states that Miriam has already broken her peace bond conditions once, and that is a reason not to trust her to follow them in the future if she is allowed back home.
- Judge concludes that there was no error in law when the first Judge issued these bail conditions, and Miriam agreed to them and nothing has changed since then, and she can’t trust that Miriam would not put residents at risk, so no changes can be made to her conditions.
- Jon and Miriam were very quiet after this.
- Jon was noted to NOT be wearing his insulin pump/monitors on his arms today, unlike his trial when everything was on full display.
- Jon was frequently on his phone texting/messaging someone. The LED would flash and disturb the court every time a notification was received.
- Miriam was in the front row using her iPad to read the proceedings (as they were transcribed by the speech-to-text translator).
