A prolific offender is heading back to court to be tried for his alleged crimes against a few little pigs.
Over 200 Penticton and Grand Forks high school students are set to spend the day in Penticton’s courthouse Wednesday for Penticton’s Law Day. The event is being hosted by local judiciary and members of the bar, along with courthouse staff.
Sneezy the Wolf (also known by his alias the Big Bad Wolf), is facing criminal charges, including mischief over $5,000 over an incident in which three homes were blown down. Three Little Pigs, the affected homeowners, are expected to testify in the annual mock trial that the infamous canine blew their houses down.
The defence is expected to submit that Sneezy suffers from asthma and could not have had the lung capacity to blow the homes down. The defence will also suggest the homes do not comply with local building codes.
Students will be getting a barbecue lunch during the demonstrations.
For the first time, a group of high school students from Grand Forks will be joining the Penticton Secondary, Princess Margaret Secondary and local middle schools in the Law Day event.
Due to the large number of students this year — around double the number from previous years — the public will not be invited to participate in the event.
“Word got around, and they’ve got the police dog man coming with his dog to do a dog demonstration, and some other police and sheriffs,” said Judge Gregory Koturbash. “We’ve got some civil lawyers, family lawyers, criminal lawyers all coming to chat with the kids, and doing some mock trials and other exercises.”
The students will also have an opportunity to sit in on some real court hearings, as the courthouse’s two provincial courtrooms will have regularly scheduled matters running that day.
Lawyer Paul Varga said the event will help promote legal literacy among local youth, and pointed to his own experience with a law class in high school.
“It certainly helped me out with knowing what was going on in the process,” he said.
“I ended up being a witness to an event not long afterwards, and so that helped me sort of get a grasp on what was going to happen. And rather than being completely afraid of the circumstances, I was able to get a grasp on it and have some kind of control.”