ABSTRACT
On April 22, 2013, a doctoral student at the Université de Sherbrooke named Chiheb Esseghaier was arrested on allegations of engaging in terrorist plotting (O’Toole et al. 2013). Despite the seriousness of the allegations made against him, the devout Muslim was unable to procure legal representation. Although he had successfully applied for legal aid, no lawyer had agreed to represent him due to his unusual request: Esseghaier insisted on counsel who would assist him in “chang[ing] the reference of his judgment” to the Qur’an, rather than the Criminal Code of Canada (Gillis 2013). Specifically, Esseghaier argued that he would not accept representation by any lawyer who would not agree that he had the right to be tried by ‘the holy book’, rather than a ‘book written by humans’. At the time of the writing of this chapter, he is still searching for a lawyer who will take his case, yet most legal scholars agree that his request is an impossible one.
