Frequent participant at Law Courts cited with 10 counts of contempt after chaotic hearings

He’s a longtime thorn in the side of the justice system; a man named in dozens of legal proceedings, whose regular visits to the courthouse and contentious interactions with staff attract the attention of sheriff’s officers.

Court records show Michael Kalo is named as an applicant or defendant in 68 separate court actions since 2006.

Now, in his latest legal escapade, Kalo has been cited with 10 counts of contempt of court after he derailed two peace bond hearings with a stream of lewd comments directed at justice officials, antisemitic rants and claims of judicial bias.

“It is no exaggeration to say many of Mr. Kalo’s comments were repulsive and irrelevant to proceedings at hand,” a judicial justice of the peace said at a Feb. 27 hearing. “Mr. Kalo made many outrageous and frankly scandalous remarks to the court.”

Kalo, who is from Israel and identifies as Jewish, is the subject of a peace bond application by a Palestinian-born sheriff’s officer who has accused Kalo of threatening him and calling him a terrorist.

Kalo is set to appear before a judge on March 17 to address the contempt citations arising from two lengthy peace bond hearings last month during which he continually disrupted and prolonged proceedings, talking and often shouting over other people as they spoke, making misogynistic and racist comments and repeatedly claiming a past sexual relationship with a woman who would later become a judge.

Kalo, who is representing himself in court, set a course for disorder from the get-go, asking the judicial justice of the peace at the start of the first hearing Feb. 3 if she had any legal training.

“You expect to come to court before a judge and you get someone with a degree in ecology,” he said.

When the JJP asked Kalo to identify himself for the court he replied: “You know my name. I’m the one who had sex with (a judge) of this court.”

Later in the hearing, Kalo questioned the protocol of addressing the JJP as “your worship,” and asked if he could address her by her last name.

“It is no exaggeration to say many of Mr. Kalo’s comments were repulsive and irrelevant to proceedings at hand.”

“C’mon, I had sex with a judge in your court, we’re like family here,” he said.

In other exchanges, Kalo used offensive stereotypes to describe senior justice officials, who he called the Crown lawyer’s “Jewish masters.”

Kalo argued motions to adjourn the hearing, for the JJP to recuse herself due to bias, to move the hearing to Brandon and to impose a publication ban to protect his reputation.

Kalo asked that the hearing go before “a jury of down-to-earth non-Jewish modest income for a change (jurors) with no political affiliation.”

All the motions were rejected.

“Insofar as Mr. Kalo is concerned about reputational harm that may come to him, I would remind him that he is responsible for his own behaviour,” the JJP said at the Feb. 27 hearing as Kalo continued to interrupt and talk over her.

For that hearing, Kalo had been given permission to bring a service dog after he argued it would help with his anxiety. He didn’t bring a dog.

“I’m noting for the record you don’t appear to have a dog with you,” the JJP said.

“No, but I brought a different service animal,” Kalo said. “I brought a snake, and it’s in my pants.”

“To be clear,” the JJP said, “that wasn’t something you were given permission to bring.”

Kalo made repeated comments about the Crown lawyer’s attire, saying she “dressed like a whore.”

“Mr. Kalo has called me a whore,” the lawyer said. “He’s in fact offending and could probably be charged at this moment with causing a disturbance and intimidation of a justice participant.”

“In my 22 years of being a Crown counsel, I have never experienced this level of disrespecting behaviour,” she said.

“In my 22 years of being a Crown counsel, I have never experienced this level of disrespecting behaviour.”

After another series of lengthy interruptions, the JJP asked Kalo: “Are you going to be quiet?”

“Is that a trick question?” he said.

When the sheriff’s officer testified, Kalo immediately objected to him saying he was born in Palestine.

“There is no such thing as Palestine,” Kalo said. “It is not an existing country… and there never will be a Palestine.”

The officer testified Kalo, when visiting court in December 2024, taunted him with references to Israel’s recent attack on Hezbollah using pagers packed with explosives. During another visit in October 2025, Kalo yelled at him for nearly two minutes, calling him a terrorist, the officer said.

“Being a refugee all my life… coming to Canada to seek peace and hearing that at my workplace, makes me feel very bad,” the officer said. “I don’t deserve that.”

Kalo interrupted the officer’s testimony to ridicule him.

“I’m heartbroken to hear how he’s been affected by an innocent statement by me,” he said. “Maybe he doesn’t have a sense of humour or is a very insecure person.”

The hearing ended with the JJP ruling that Kalo appear remotely when the hearing resumes April 10.

“Then if Mr. Kalo interrupts the court you would be muted,” the JJP said.

Kalo immediately objected, claiming he was “a man of modest means” and didn’t have the equipment or internet access to appear remotely.

“It looks like you have a smartphone,” the JJP noted, pointing to Kalo’s cellphone sitting on a table.

“I’m connecting to public Wi-Fi,” he retorted. “What do you know about it? You went to a private school with adult-spoiled Jewish kids. You’ve been pampered all your life.”

The Crown lawyer accused Kalo of manipulating the court, noting she had received emails from him as late as 3 a.m.

“He’s certainly sending a plethora of emails at various times of the day,” she said. “I’m unsure how he’s typing them if he doesn’t either have a phone or internet access.”

In 2019, Kalo was ordered by the court to cease holding himself out as a lawyer after he had previously been denied admission as an articling student.

That same year, he reached an out-of-court settlement with the City of Winnipeg after police included information about charges for which he was not convicted in a criminal record check.

Kalo filed a lawsuit against the city in 2017, alleging he lost an opportunity to apply for a job as a school bus driver after a criminal record check revealed he’d been accused of sexual offences against a child eight years earlier.

The charges were stayed after Kalo signed a peace bond. He was never convicted of any crime.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca