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Man facing drug charges elects to skip preliminary inquiry

David Edwardsen from Terrace will now go straight to his trial

An alleged local drug dealer will go straight to trial without a preliminary inquiry.

David Edwardsen was scheduled for a preliminary inquiry in provincial court here April 16 but his defence lawyer Kenneth Westlake, on agreement with prosectuor John Walker, asked for a consent to committal.

That means that instead of holding the preliminary inquiry to determine if the prosecutor has enough evidence to go to trial, Edwardsen is willing to go straight to trial.

Judge Terence Wright agreed with the consent to committal.

The next step was for prosecutor and defence to go to the judicial case manager to fix a date for the trial to start.

Earlier in the court process, Edwardsen had elected to have his trial before a supreme court judge and no jury.

Also, Westlake asked for a variation to Edwardsen's bail conditions.

Edwardsen is under a curfew when in Terrace or at a work site of 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. and wanted the Terrace time extended.

Wright agreed for the Terrace curfew to be changed to 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Edwardsen will be tried on 17 charges: four counts of trafficking in a controlled substance, three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, one count of production of a controlled substance, two counts of possess prohibited/restricted firearm with ammunition, six counts of unauthorized possession of firearm and one count of possessing a prohibited weapon without a licence.