Canada Case Law

R. v. Z.P.

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The charge, read as a whole and in context, did not mislead the jury: earlier correct formulations of W.(D.) made clear the Crown bore the burden and that the jury must acquit if they believed or had a reasonable doubt that the complainant consented; and the trial judge rightly instructed the jury that absence of medical injury could not be relied on to conclude the assault did not occur because the complainant did not allege injury and there is no legal or common‑sense rule that pain necessarily produces injury.

Source excerpt

• Consent
• Reasonable doubt / w.(d.) instruction
• Jury charge on lack of injury
• Publication ban (s.486.4/486.6 criminal code)

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R. v. Jerace

Court

British Columbia Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal allowed the conviction appeal and ordered a new trial after Crown counsel improperly alleged, in closing, that the accused tailored his evidence from disclosure.

• Failure to comply with long term supervision order
• Improper closing submissions
• Tailoring/allegation of concoction
• Remedy - new trial
• Self-represented accused assistance
• Improper-closing-submissions

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R. v. Nuttall

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Oral ruling in a terrorism trial: the court refused to bar duress in advance and excluded Crown bad-character evidence for now, while admitting one passage as relevant to motive.

• Duress defence
• Air of reality
• Mens rea
• Motive
• Bad character evidence
• Admissibility

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R. v. Sipes

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court denied severance and mistrial applications in a multi-accused murder trial, holding that the disputed evidence could be managed by limiting instructions.

• Severance
• Mistrial
• Limiting instructions
• Admissibility of other-acts/post-offence conduct
• Prejudicial evidence
• Cross-examination rights

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R. v. Odea

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

Oral voir dire ruling on use of criminal records in credibility attacks; the court allowed contextualized use of Paul Olsen’s juvenile record and no sanitizing of Tamara Odea’s record.

• Credibility
• Criminal record admissibility
• Juvenile record
• Jury directions
• Witness credibility assessment
• Criminal-record-evidence

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R. v. Poon and Wong

Court

Supreme Court of British Columbia

The court held the defence of duress had no air of reality and would not be left to the jury because the accused had safe avenues of escape and were voluntarily involved in criminal activity.

• Duress
• Air of reality test
• Safe avenue of escape
• Voluntary involvement exception
• Modified objective/subjective assessment
• Air-of-reality-test

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R. v. Seymore

Court

Nova Scotia Court of Appeal

The convictions were not unreasonable because a properly instructed jury could reasonably accept evidence dating the offences within the indictment period; the trial judge's answer that a variance in dates did not require a conclusion of innocence was legally correct under s.601(4.1) and relevant precedents because time was not an essential element nor crucial to the defence here, and the judge did not err in declining to repeat age or credibility instructions given the premises of the jury's question and the comprehensive main charge.

Source excerpt

• Unreasonable verdict
• Variance between indictment and evidence
• Jury question/clarification
• Age element (complainant)
• Credibility assessment

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