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 – Procedural law – Cautions to Jury – Whether failure to give jury a cautionary warning regarding evidence of complainant amounted to an injustice or miscarriage of law – Whether trial judge’s failure to give reasons for evidentiary ruling prevented properly assessing whether there was a misdirection or an injustice on appeal.

The applicant was convicted by a jury on two counts of sexual assault of two employees. One of the complainants was K.B. Her accounts of what happened differed in some respects when she spoke to her friend after the assault, to the police, under oath at a preliminary inquiry, and when testifying at trial. Defence counsel argued that the differences were material and requested a cautionary warning to the jury about relying on K.B.’s testimony. Crown counsel agreed that the trial judge could advise the jury on the distinction between inconsistencies under oath and those not under oath, but argued that K.B.’s inconsistencies were immaterial and a cautionary warning would amount to an error of law in this case. The trial judge did not respond to counsels’ arguments and did not give a cautionary warning beyond general instructions.