Case information

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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 - Evidence - Hearsay - What evidentiary foundation is required for a trial judge to rely on the absence of motive by the declarant to lie as a factor tending to establish the inherent reliability of a hearsay statement - Whether the hearsay statements of the deceased were admissible under the principled exception to the hearsay rule.

In the early morning hours of April 21, 2001, eighteen year old George Ellison was fatally shot at an after-hours nightclub on Dufferin Street in Toronto. In the confusion that followed, the shooter escaped. Approximately ten days later, the Appellant Leucherin Blackman was arrested and charged with Ellison’s murder.

The only issue at trial was the identification of the shooter. The Crown lead evidence of motive and planning and deliberation. The Crown sought to rely on out-of-court statements allegedly made by Ellison to his mother, Ms. Freckleton, regarding a stabbing in July 2000 and shooting incident in February 2001. The Crown relied on this testimony as evidence of motive that supported both the Crown’s identification case and its theory that the murder was both planned and deliberate. The trial judge admitted the evidence under the principled exception to the hearsay rule. The Appellant challenged the reliability and accuracy of this testimony.

After a thirty day trial before judge and jury, the Appellant was convicted of first degree murder. On appeal, the majority of the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. Simmons J.A. in dissent would have allowed the appeal, set aside the conviction and ordered a new trial on the basis that the trial judge had erred in holding that the Crown had established the threshold reliability of the evidence of Ms. Freckleton and it should not have been admitted.