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Criminal law - Defences - Correction of child by force - Whether the Court of Appeal erred in finding that force which is measured and objectively reasonable and for the purpose of correction does not fall under s. 43 of the Criminal Code merely because the caregiver was also frustrated and/or angry at the time of the correction - Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, s. 43.

On July 12, 2004, while the Applicant and his family were visiting Winnipeg, the Applicant was left alone in the family’s hotel room to look after five children under the age of ten, including his four-year-old daughter. The Applicant’s daughter was being disobedient and refused to go to bed. At a certain point, the Applicant picked up his daughter, shook her a couple of times and threw her onto the bed, telling her to stay there and to go to sleep. The child bounced off the bed, hit her head on the wall and fell to the floor. The child suffered a subdural hematoma and as a result of the trauma, later died of her injuries. In a trial by jury, the Applicant was convicted of manslaughter. The Applicant appealed on the basis that s. 43 of the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 was an available defence and that the trial judge had erred in her charge to the jury on the offence of unlawful act manslaughter. The appeal against conviction was dismissed.