at trial, woman testifies she stayed a weed customer of haaima after seeing image of him sexually abusing child
3 minute read
michael haaima is escorted into the frontenac county courthouse in kingston, ont. on june 13, 2025,
elliot ferguson
/
the whig-standard
the sex-crimes trial of michael haaima resumed this week after an almost five-month break and though the matters before the superior court in kingston date back a full year, its dynamic has been remained consistent.
assistant crown megan williams has called a series of complainants to the witness box — 28 were cited in the original charging documents — and after their direct testimony, haaima’s lawyer natasha calvinho has cross-examined them, calling into question details and accounts in testimony that vary and even contradict statements given to police investigating the alleged crimes of the 41-year-old kingston web designer.
and in the wind-up to the defence’s line of questioning, calvinho would routinely drop a suggestion that a complainant was “just making this up,” which she’ll push back against, denials impatient or angry or tearful.
if any incriminating detail comes out during the crown’s direct line of questioning that can’t be found in the police documents of the investigation, calvinho dials up the scrutiny.
and if calvinho can cast the complainant as unreliable or even compromised, it might feel chilly in the courtroom, but everything is on the table for the defence when the accused is being tried on 98 counts, including more than 40 charges of sexual assault as well as 10 charges related to child pornography and a single charge of bestiality.
so it was once more this week with a kingston woman who returned to the court after first being sworn in january. like other complainants, her identity is protected by a publication ban.
on monday during williams’s direct examination, the woman testified that she was so disturbed by images of haaima touching a child that she ended her two-year, “on-and-off” relationship with him in the fall of 2019, became suicidal and later embarked on a systematic campaign of harassment of haaima for six months before she spoke to police in february of 2020.
advertisement
the woman told the court she threatened haaima by telling him she would expose him to his friends and family and even to police. she said she was motivated by her desire to protect children from further harm. she also testified that haaima, in turn, threatened her.
under calvinho’s cross-examination, the woman denied that she was reluctant to speak to police in february 2020, though at least one officer noted she “didn’t want to talk” when he arrived at her house to first investigate her relationship with haaima, which had started with a “pay-for-play” or “sugar-daddy” arrangement.
the witness had to concede that she effectively maintained a business relationship with haaima during those months of harassing messages and texts that sometimes numbered 50 in a day.
like many of the complainants who have testified during the crown’s case, the woman said she had continued to purchase marijuana from haaima while she threatened to expose him. she said she bought marijuana from haaima for $2 a gram in 2019. calvino pointed out to the witness that the federal government had legalized marijuana in 2018 and she could have purchased marijuana from a dispensary.
the woman told the court she was not working for much of this tine and could only afford marijuana cheaply sourced from haaima rather than paying more than three times that price at a licensed weed store.
though the complainant was a sympathetic figure during crown examination, with her account of poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental-health struggles echoing several previous complainants, her willingness to do business with haaima and delay her speaking to police were tough to explain.
even more problematic was her involvement in three-way sex with haaima involving underage women prior to the fall of 2019. when calvinho pushed the complainant to explain the inconsistency, she sobbed in the witness box.
advertisement
she said she is “not okay” with sex involving teenage girls under 18 years of age, but she did it because she had believed “pushing boundaries (was) normal” in a relationship with a boyfriend.
the bench trial will continue with justice robyn ryan bell presiding. when the trial began last spring, a verdict on the charges had been originally expected to be handed down this month. because of numerous delays, the latest being calvinho’s commitment to a murder trial in ottawa last winter, the verdicts might be handed down before the end of the calendar year.
share story
