John Massel appeared to protest delays in his dangerous offender hearing — by further delaying it

For two hours it looked like police would have to use force to bring John Massel to his dangerous offender hearing.

There were questions posed about how much force corrections officers should use to get him out of his cell at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre. And how much police should use to get him in the wagon" and into the courthouse.

In the end, Massel walked into the courtroom under his own steam, even smiling a little.

Prisoners refusing to leave their cell to attend court is not a new phenomena. It has been used as a stall tactic at one Hamilton murder trial and as a way to protest delayed access to medication at another. In a few cases it's been a matter of inmates with severe mental illness being uncooperative and violent and having to be half-carried into the courtroom.

In Massel's case, it appears he was protesting delays in his hearing. Which he did by further delaying his hearing.

The Criminal Code of Canada insists an accused be in the courtroom for their trial.

On Friday, when the standoff entered its second hour, Justice Kim Carpenter-Gunn signed an extraction order" authorizing the use of force to get Massel to where he was supposed to be. It is thankfully rare for things to devolve to that point. Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Scott said he's never seen it happen.

Scott wants Massel declared a dangerous offender and kept behind bars for an undetermined amount of time.

Massel, 54, has a long history of violence: manslaughter, sexual interference, sexual assault, invitation to sexual touching, assault, robbery, threatening death, assault causing bodily harm. His sexual assault victim was a 12-year-old girl.

His own siblings have told a court they live in fear of him after he threatened to kill them and burn their homes down.

He has been diagnosed with anti-social personality disorder and substance use disorder.

One factor the judge must consider is whether his risk of violence will drop as he ages.

Massel is representing himself at this hearing. It is his right to do so, but rarely is an accused actually capable of putting up a proper defence. Even lawyers hire lawyers when they've been arrested.

To help Massel, the court has appointed two amicus" counsel from Toronto, John Fennel and Jessica Zita. They were to give their final submissions Friday, leaving Massel to then have his chance to make final submissions. But all that was derailed just before court opened when word came that Massel was refusing to participate.

Everyone involved quickly agreed they would much rather coax" Massel out than force him. Zita raced to the jail to try to sway him. But he wouldn't budge. Next, the lawyers decided that getting the extraction order - and making sure Massel knew there was an order - might do the trick.

The day before he told Carpenter-Gunn he wanted to leave court. When she told him he couldn't, he accepted it without fuss.

To deliver the news about the order, the court sent two special constables who have guarded Massel throughout the hearing.

Apart from defence lawyers, special constables arguably develop the closest relationships with accused people in the court system. They drive them around, sit with them for hours, talk with them. Special constables often say they try to treat prisoners with respect so they will in turn respect them.

That rapport - and the order - did the trick. Massel finally arrived in court.

But because of the backlog of cases and shortage of courtrooms due to the pandemic, by then it was almost too late. Another case was scheduled to start. Now Massel's hearing is put over until at least mid-September.

Susan Clairmont is a Hamilton-based crime, court and social justice columnist at The Spectator. Reach her via email: sclairmont@thespec.com