Marianne White

The ex-husband of former gold medallist Myriam Bedard told a child abduction trial Monday he thought he would never see his daughter again after she had left for the United States with her mother last fall.

"I thought she would never come back. I had lost all hope of seeing her again," Jean Paquet said as he took the stand on the opening day of Bedard's trial.

Bedard and her new companion, Nima Mazhari, along with Bedard's then 11-year-old daughter, travelled south on Oct. 2 to protest against what they called "bureaucratic terrorism" by Canadian authorities.

Paquet said he learned from his daughter on Oct. 4 that she was in the U.S. and added he had never given Bedard permission to leave the country with his daughter and pull her out of school. Paquet said he was "flabbergasted" when he heard the news.

He said he had a few brief phone conversations with his daughter and Bedard the following weeks. Bedard declined to say when she would come back to Canada, he stressed.

In an email sent to Bedard, Paquet begged her to come back to Quebec or at least not "to drag her [the daughter] down your murky path."

"You give me no choice but to involve the police," Paquet said with a shaky voice as he read the email to the jury of six men and six women.

Paquet officially lodged a complaint with Quebec City police at the end of November after he couldn't reach his daughter for almost two weeks.

Bedard, a double-gold medallist in biathlon, was arrested in the U.S. after an international warrant was issued last December. She was later charged with violating a custody agreement with her ex-husband.

Chantal Bedard, the sister of the accused, also took the stand Monday to say that she thought it was "weird" and surprising when Bedard suddenly pulled her child out of school to go with her to the U.S.

As she testified against her sister, she appeared emotional, at times holding back tears.

"I was really worried that her daughter could not go to school," the mother of four said.

The sisters didn't look at each other, and the atmosphere was tense during the testimony.

Bedard's parents attended the first day of the trial of their estranged daughter, to whom they haven't spoken in more than four years.

The jury also heard from two administrative workers from the school Bedard's daughter attended, as well as from Bedard's neighbour.

Mazhari is among witnesses scheduled to testify at the trial, which is expected to last three weeks at the Quebec City courthouse.

page mise en ligne par SVP

vélo ski de fond plongeon
Consultez notre ENCYCLOPÉDIE sportive