An arraignment hearing will be held on Oct 4 for two brothers accused in the alleged June 12 gaybashing in Vancouver’s False Creek neighbourhood. Parminder Singh Peter Bassi, 30, is charged with two counts of assault causing bodily harm in connection with the incident, while Ravinder Robbie Bassi, 27, is charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm.
Neither brother was in court Sept 13 when Downtown Community Court Judge Elisabeth Burgess firmly told lawyers that the case would be on the docket for an arraignment following a number of adjournments.
The pair are charged in connection with an attack on Peter Regier and David Holtzman.
The couple had returned home the night of June 12 to find two men drinking on their doorstep. When Holtzman asked one of the men not to urinate near their door, he alleges the men hurled “a barrage” of homophobic slurs at them and then physically attacked them.
The men repeatedly called them “fucking faggots” and “cocksuckers,” Holtzman told Xtra after the incident, in which Regier says they were “attacked and savagely beaten.” Both men were taken to hospital and treated for concussions. Regier needed staples to close a scalp wound.
Both men were in court along with community supporters on Sept 13.
In asking for the month’s adjournment in an August appearance, Baker told Downtown Community Court Judge David Pendleton the new lawyer would need time to look at case details.
This time, Baker told the judge he is now representing Ravinder Bassi while another lawyer is working for Parminder Bassi. Baker told the court that the second lawyer is still waiting for disclosure of documents from the Crown.
The Bassi brothers were arrested without incident on June 30 at their Richmond home. They have been released from jail and must abide by a number of court-imposed conditions.
The Sept 13 court date was the third appearance where an adjournment was requested. “The wheels grind slowly,” says Regier, adding he wishes there was more communication between lawyers so they would know where the process would play out.
“Obviously there’s a lot of interest around it and interest in seeing this move forward,” he says.
Regier, Holtzman and their supporters will be back in court for the arraignment to see how the brothers plead. “Whether it’s guilty or not guilty, then we’ll know what happens next,” he says.
Baker told Xtra in August it was far too early to even consider thinking about the case being one about hate crime.
Why you can trust Xtra
