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Trial dates set for Nelson doctor

A Nelson doctor accused of tax evasion will stand trial in April and June 2013.
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Dr. Warren Fischer exits Nelson court on Tuesday. He is expected to stand trial next year on tax evasion charges — although he does not recognize the court's jurisdiction.

A Nelson doctor accused of tax evasion will stand trial in April and June 2013.

Dates were fixed Tuesday in Nelson Provincial Court for Dr. Warren Fischer who faces three counts each of making false statements and evading tax payments in 2006, 2007, and 2008.

He is expected to return to court on January 23 for a trial confirmation hearing. The trial itself is scheduled for April 22-25 and June 24-27.

Federal crown prosecutor Rob Brown tried to present Fischer with disclosure documents Tuesday, but he declined to accept them.

Judge Lisa Mrozinski stopped Irene Maus-Gravenhorst of the Sovereign Squamish Nation as she began to make a statement on Fischer’s behalf.

“This case is dismissed. Thank you very much,” Maus-Gravenhorst told the judge.

“I claim sovereign status,” Fischer said. “You have no jurisdiction over me.”

Fischer, the co-founder of the Academy of Classical Oriental Sciences, was charged in March and pled not guilty. Many of his supporters were in the courtroom Tuesday.

Gravenhorst previously said Fischer is an ambassador for the Sovereign Squamish, which claims “freedom from taxes pursuant to legislated common law jurisdiction governance.”

While the sovereign citizen defence has been used before in tax evasion cases, no court has accepted it.

Chief Gibby Jacob of the Squamish Nation told the Star the Sovereign Squamish have “no standing within the nation at all.”