MANDEL: Jacob Hoggard whines about finally going to prison

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Just do your time already.

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For six years, Jacob Hoggard has avoided jail. From the time of his arrest in July 2018, the former Hedley frontman has been out on bail. Even after a Toronto jury convicted him in June 2022 of sexual assault causing bodily harm of an Ottawa woman, Ontario Superior Court Justice Gillian Roberts continued his release as he awaited sentencing.

And after Roberts sentenced the convicted rapist to five years in prison, he spent nary a day behind bars after being granted bail pending his appeal.

When the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld his conviction in a decision released Aug. 16, that freedom train finally came to a halt. Or has it?

So what has it been — just over three weeks? Hoggard’s lawyer was back in court applying for bail again — this time as his poor client applies for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

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It seems our former pop star is having a tough time at the Toronto South Detention Centre — where he’s been held in protective custody while awaiting transfer to the federal system.

In his affidavit filed with his bail application, Hoggard, 40, complains he’s being kept in a solitary unit in the jail’s Special Handling Unit “because of concerns about his safety resulting from his career as a well-known singer and the media publicity his case has attracted.”

He says he’s only allowed out of his cell for one or (less often) two hours a day — and sometimes not at all due to staffing issues. Each cell is released individually, so Hoggard says he has no contact with other inmates even when he’s out. The long-term effects of what’s akin to solitary confinement could be permanent, his lawyer argued.

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But Crown attorney Catherine Weiler told Justice Jill Copeland that Hoggard’s placement in protective custody is “entirely voluntary” and there is time to mix with the general population if he wants.

“The idea that he’s in some kind of solitary confinement does not appear to be made out,” she argued.

It’s also temporary — if Hoggard is denied bail, Weiler said he’ll be transferred soon to a jail in North Bay to await his Sept. 23 trial in Haileybury on a separate sexual assault charge that dates back to 2016.

Defence lawyer Arash Ghiassi urged Copeland to free Hoggard on bail due to what he argued was a strong case before the Supreme Court: they plan to argue the Court of Appeal should have ordered a new trial for the singer after agreeing it was an error to allow a Crown expert to give evidence on the neurobiology of trauma and how there are different responses to sexual assault. Instead, the panel found the trial judge corrected the misuse of that evidence and so “there was no substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice.”

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That same testimony by Dr. Lori Haskell may prove contentious at another appeal — she also testified at Peter Nygard’s sexual assault trial.

In Hoggard’s case, the Crown insisted it’s a weak argument and it’s doubtful Canada’s highest court will grant leave to appeal due to a “harmless error.”

A decision on whether the Supreme Court will hear his appeal is expected in three to six months.

In the meantime, his lawyer wants him released to his wife and son in Burnaby, B.C. under the same plan as before: As sureties, his wife Rebekah Hoggard is pledging $200,000 — most of the couple’s $260,000 savings — while a family friend is pledging $15,000.

Weiler urged Copeland to find Hoggard’s detention is necessary on public interest grounds: a jury convicted him of an “extremely serious” case of sexual violence, including acts of degradation, against a woman he met on Tinder and the public has a “strong interest” in seeing his sentence enforced.

We certainly do.

The judge reserved her decision but said it would likely be released before the end of the week. In the meantime, Hoggard stays where he is.

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