Canada Case Law

R. v. Kwok

Court

Court of Appeal for Ontario

The appeal is allowed and a new trial ordered because the trial judge relied materially on dates and viewing metadata that were derived solely from a Digital Forensic Report that was not admitted into evidence; those non‑evidentiary dates played an essential part of the judge’s reasoning that the appellant had knowledge and control of the illicit material, producing a miscarriage of justice notwithstanding that admissible evidence could have supported conviction.

Source excerpt

• Child pornography offences
• Possession of child pornography
• Knowledge and control
• Circumstantial evidence
• Misapprehension of evidence
• Lay opinion evidence

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Harkat (Re)

Court

Federal Court

The Federal Court partly granted a motion to vary Mohamed Harkat’s release conditions, finding a password-change breach but not proven email deletion without authorization.

• Security certificate
• Conditions of release
• Breach of conditions
• Electronic monitoring and surveillance
• Digital forensic evidence
• Access to communications

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Harkat v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)

Court

Federal Court

The Federal Court dismissed Mohamed Harkat’s motions for state-funded counsel, finding the evidence did not satisfy the stringent Fisher/Rowbotham criteria.

• State-funded counsel
• Counsel of choice
• Section 7 charter
• Security certificates
• Legal aid eligibility and exhaustion
• Special advocate process

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