A Follow-Up to Decorum Schmecorum
On Friday February 7, we visited the Old City Hall courthouse to see the 10am sentencing hearing of the infamous “Chair Girl,” Marcella Zoia. Last year, Zoia pleaded guilty to mischief causing danger to life after throwing a patio chair off a 45th floor condo balcony in Toronto.
Equipped with Kristy Wong’s tips on courtroom decorum from the January issue of Ultra Vires and tasked with writing a reflection for our criminal law class, we were ready to be the best-behaved people in court.
When it comes to high-profile cases, however, we learned that the rules at Old City Hall can be a little different:
Wear formal and business clothing.
Adrienne: I was actually surprised by how casual most people observing were dressed. Even the constantly-tweeting journalists seemed to be wearing sweaters and jeans, so wearing your best suit isn’t necessary, but probably leave the sweats at home.
Angela: There were also high schoolers courtroom-hopping on a field trip. They were dressed pretty casually. Chair Girl dressed formally for court, foregoing the bodycon outfits of her Instagram photos for a black blazer and black pants. Her style still shone through in the form of hot pink nails.
Bow when court is already in session and take a seat quietly.
Adrienne: I was also surprised by how few people bowed. The most interesting part was that the journalists and suit-wearing professionals seemed to be least likely to bow, in contrast to more casual onlookers.
Attend court in the morning to catch the exciting cases.
Angela: But when you arrive at a courtroom before 10am, don’t tug on the doors and stomp away in a huff when they don’t open. We saw too many people try to open courtroom doors that were in fact locked.
Adrienne: Also be prepared to be there for a while if you want to watch the whole thing. We left around 1pm and the hearing still had not wrapped up.
Check the daily court lists.
Angela: Chair Girl, Marcella Zoia, was listed under her initials. Apparently initials are used if there is a publication ban at any point in the proceedings. (Initials are also used for youth under 18, and when a defendant’s name could reveal the identity of a complainant or witness in a sexual offence.) Also, trial and hearing locations can change—Zoia’s hearing got moved to a larger courtroom and the update was not reflected on the online docket.
Adrienne: But shout-out to the woman in the original courtroom who announced that “the Zoia matter” would be heard in a different room, prompting us to power-walk up the stairs of Old City Hall.
Do not bring coffee or tea into a courtroom.
Angela: We packed light and also did not bring water bottles, thinking that there would be water fountains. We could not find any water fountains. There is a basement café but we did not make the trek down during the morning recess.
Adrienne: However, the bathrooms at Old City Hall are nicely stocked with small disposable paper cups. Hopefully the pipes have been replaced since the building opened in 1899, because I chugged down about five of these cups.
Do not leave the courtroom without bowing.
Angela: Some people left the courtroom without bowing. Those who bowed did so with varying degrees of tilt. The security guards opened the doors for some people to exit, but not for everyone. This door-opening did not correlate to whether or not they bowed.
Adrienne: Bowing rate was definitely higher for exit-ers than it was for enter-ers.
Do not leave the volume on your phone on.
Adrienne: Cell phones as well as laptops were fully out in play, and usually open to Twitter, although thankfully everyone had diligently set theirs to silent. We spotted at least five journalists that we recognized from various news outlets, including one from a certain Toronto-based clickbait news site, breaking the no photos rule and sending some juicy gossip in massive font right in front of us.
Angela: On a side note, the Crown lawyer had her laptop up in full view and we could see her desktop background – there was the cutest picture of a French bulldog. I got distracted by the adorable pup.
Do not talk loudly in court.
Adrienne: Although there were no loud talkers in the courtroom, we did run into some interesting conversations elsewhere. While waiting in the hallway for the hearing to begin, a woman stood talking on the phone directly outside the doors to the hearing courtroom and loudly demanded orders for dozens of donuts of various flavours.
Angela: In addition to the live-tweeting reporters in the courtroom, there were also photographers who had left their cameras in a heap outside the courtroom doors. As the hours went on, a bunch of photographers decided to follow the proceedings from Twitter instead, sitting and chatting on a bench in the hallway. They were just waiting for the hearing to end so that they could follow Zoia and her lawyer out to take photos on the steps when they leave Old City Hall. Thanks to the hard work of live-tweeting journalists, anyone can follow the action of a high-profile court hearing from anywhere.
