'We were getting shafted': Testimony of Daniel Bard's alleged victims continues in Moncton

A Miramichi father and son testified Friday at Daniel Bard's fraud trial that they gave Bard more than $170,000 to invest when they were trying to start a medical marijuana business, but they never saw the money again.

After being delayed three days, the trial resumed in Moncton with testimony from the two men.

Bard, 60, is on trial on 19 charges, including fraud, theft and money laundering. Some of his alleged crimes date back to when he worked with 3+ Corp., a municipally funded development agency, and also had a side business called VM Venture Management.

Etienne Haché told the court his family owned a numbered company, also known as Acadian Marijuana Producers, or AMP, in 2018 with the goal of producing medical marijuana. Haché said he was president of AMP and responsible for leading operations.

He and his father Francois, the majority owner of AMP, testified they invested family money in the enterprise, bought land, began developing it, and filed a cannabis application to Health Canada.

Etienne Haché told Judge Anne Richard that when his family couldn't provide any more of its own money and other investors fell through, a mutual friend introduced them to Bard, who proposed financing the project.

Haché said that in early 2019, AMP paid Bard VM Venture Management about $172,000, and Bard promised tens of millions of dollars in financing in return.

"We were guaranteed that we would get our money back," Francois Haché testified. "That's why we felt pretty comfortable."

Etienne Haché said that when he first met Bard, he said he "bailed out Ferrari" and was involved with other major companies overseas. He said they trusted Bard at that time.

But during the next few months, Haché said things "got kind of weird" between Bard and AMP.

Bard went to Europe and became increasingly difficult to reach. He sporadically reassured them he was working on the deal there, despite showing no tangible results, Haché testified.

"He would always have a delay tactic of some sort."

Haché said Bard eventually asked him to take out a life insurance policy to cover the loan, which Haché said he did.

He testified further that when his family eventually became frustrated with the fact that Bard was missing set timelines for the financing, they came to an agreement with him to cease any investment efforts. Bard was to pay the family back its initial investment of $172,000.

"There was nothing being produced," Francois Haché said. "We were getting shafted basically."

When asked by the Crown whether his family had ever received any of the money back from Bard, Etienne Haché replied, "Never, Nothing."

"It was hard on the family, hard on the business," Francois Haché said. "It was embarrassing."

The court also heard from Randy Murdoch, who is Etienne's uncle and was a manager for AMP. He said he was part of initial meetings between AMP and Bard and remembers Bard telling them they were all going to do well from the deal.

In his cross-examination, defence lawyer James Matheson confirmed parts of the testimony of Etienne Haché and his father and asked them whether Bard had asked them for a copy of their passports at any point. 

Neither of them could recall whether that happened, and Matheson did not elaborate.

Defence motion claims unreasonable delays

Defence lawyer Tim Dubé made an unexpected comment before the court heard testimony Friday morning.

Dubé said he was going to file a motion for a stay of proceedings, which means temporarily or permanently stopping proceedings, because of unreasonable delays in the trial.

In what is known as the Jordan Principle, a Supreme Court of Canada decision has said anyone accused of a crime has the right to trial within a reasonable amount of time from the moment charges are laid.

Bard was accused on July 4, 2022. His trial, which was supposed to take place in November 2023, was delayed for several reasons, including time for him to find a lawyer.

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His trial finally began on April 24, about 33 months after charges were laid, which Dubé estimates is an unreasonable delay.

The Supreme Court decision specifies that in provincial court, a trial must come to an end no more than 18 months after charges have been laid.

When weighing a decision on this type of motion, any delays caused by the defence or the accused are not counted toward the threshold. On Friday, Richard said she had not yet read the official motion Dubé said he filed with the courts.

The six-week trial is expected to continue on Monday.