Judge insists Oka hearings proceed

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A Quebec provincial court judge refused to order a temporary halt to a coroner's inquest into the death of a police officer during the 1990 Oka crisis.

Justice Andre Denis denied a bid by lawyer for the Association of Quebec Provincial Police to suspend the hearings.

In mid-February, provincial police lawyers asked for a stay of proceedings until another judge could decide on a motion requiring the Mohawk witnesses to say who else was behind the barricades July 11, the day Cpl. Marcel Lemay was shot.

Denis's decision confirms Coroner Guy Gilbert's right to decide which questions will not be answered by the Mohawks.

"After apparently having thought otherwise (Gilbert) now says it is not essential to his inquest to know the names of the Natives who were in the Pines in the summer of 1990," Denis wrote.

The police have threatened to pull out of the hearings.