The couple was charged with failing to provide the necessaries of life to their son, Ezekiel Stephan, who was 19-months-old when he died in 2012. The appeal court sided with the prosecution in finding Clackson's comments "were unjustified" and "would lead a reasonable and informed person to view the trial judge's conduct as giving rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias." The judge in the first trial ruled the official cause of death to be bacterial meningitis. But after the second trial, Clackson agreed with the defence's medical expert who said the boy died from a lack of oxygen in the ambulance. But the appeal court also sided with the Crown's appeal arguments in finding that Clackson erred in law when he ruled the prosecution hadn't proven the boy would have survived if he'd received more timely medical intervention.

Source: CBC News March 08, 2021 19:31 UTC