Day 262 - 13 Jun 96 - Page 07
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Please do not. You have a witness in the
3 witness box. Just ask the questions which you need to ask.
4
5 MS. STEEL: (To the witness) 16th November, you have got noted
6 here Helen, Andrew, John, Kevin and Ben being present, plus
7 some others; in total, nine people. The "some others"
8 would have been people who you did not know their names;
9 yes?
10 A. I presume so.
11
12 Q. There is a reference to a provisional date being set for
13 the following year's anti-McDonald's fair, and the date
14 being given. There is no reference there to any comment
15 from myself with respect to that?
16 A. No. I have no recollection other than the note. I do
17 not know who made that. I do not know who set the date.
18
19 Q. If I had said something significant about it, you would
20 have made a note of that?
21 A. Not necessarily, no. At that time I was reporting on
22 -- I did not always report on who said what. I have no
23 idea at this time who made that comment.
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25 Q. Just as a general point: I mean, you said yesterday that
26 you did not hear -- I do not know whether it is a general
27 point about anybody -- yes, I think it was a general
28 question that you did not hear anybody in the group, or at
29 the meeting, sorry, you did not hear anybody at the meeting
30 disassociating themselves from the discussions about the
31 fair or about whatever other things might have been going
32 on; yes?
33 A. No, I have no recollection of people disassociating
34 themselves from it.
35
36 Q. Did you disassociate yourself? Did you speak up and say:
37 "I do not want anything to do with this"?
38 A. No, I did not disassociate myself.
39
40 Q. It would not be the kind of normal expected behaviour,
41 would it?
42 A. Disassociation from something? It would depend on the
43 subject, I suppose. The range of people at the meetings
44 varied; some people were quite quiet and really did not
45 make much of an input; other people were more opinionated
46 on certain issues and probably would have raised objection
47 if there was something they did not agree with. I was
48 fairly quiet, as far as I recall, throughout most of the
49 meetings.
50
51 Q. But, in general, people could speak about something that
52 they felt they had something to say about, but otherwise
53 they would just stay quiet and not indicate one way or the
54 other whether they were for or against?
55 A. It is certainly possible that someone could have been
56 against something and not said anything. But I do not know
57 what was going through people's minds. I have no idea if
58 non-speech on someone's part was due to agreement or just
59 due to reticence. I do not know.
60