Summary

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Summary

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Criminal law – Perjury – Unreasonable verdict – Issue estoppel – Abuse of process – Whether applicant’s conviction unsafe because not supported by evidence or otherwise unreasonable – Whether findings of fact and inferences drawn by trial judge in first of several trials involving accused charged with same offence and involving same issues should be considered by subsequent trial judges in same series of trials.

Following a public inquiry into the death of Mr. Robert Dziekanski, a visitor from Poland who was tasered by RCMP officers at the Vancouver International Airport and who was pronounced dead shortly thereafter, the applicant, along with three other RCMP officers involved in the incident, were charged with perjury and tried in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The applicant and another officer were convicted. The other two officers were acquitted. The charge of perjury against the applicant related to testimony he gave at the inquiry. The trial judge found that the applicant had lied at the inquiry about what he had perceived during the incident and about whether he discussed the details of the incident with the other officers before giving his statements to the investigators. The trial judge also found that the applicant’s account of the incident was unquestionably inaccurate in material respects when compared to a video of the incident taken by a bystander. The Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the applicant’s appeal.

Lower Court Rulings