Case information

None.

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 – Dangerous offender – Whether the burden of proof has been inadvertently shifted on to the accused – Whether the trial judge adequately applied the evidence he had accepted to the principle of proof beyond a reasonable doubt – Whether the deference given to the trial judge by the appeal court outweighed the facts of the case – Whether the verdict is unreasonable.



Mr. Harris was convicted of seven offences and designated a dangerous offender. He was given a sentence of five and a half years, with credit for the 17 months spent on remand, to be followed by a ten year supervision order, a lifetime firearms order and a DNA order for breaking and entering and assault causing bodily harm. The other offences attracted sentences from three to six months concurrent to the sentence on the predicate offence. Mr. Harris appealed the conviction on the predicate offence and uttering a threat, as well as the designation as a dangerous offender, the sentence for the predicate offence and the length of the supervision order. The appeal court allowed the appeal in part, in that the Crown had no objection to the appeal being allowed with respect to the count of uttering a threat and the period of supervision following the expiration of the sentence was reduced from ten to five years.