Case information

Criminal law — Charge to jury — Need to include “rolled-up charge” instruction — Self induced intoxication and provocation — No air of reality to defence of provocation — Whether Quebec Court of Appeal erred in law by confirming that trial judge’s instruction on “rolled up charge defence” was appropriate.

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.

The applicant was charged with first degree murder. The charge resulted from a confession he made to the police, a couple of days after the victim’s corpse had been discovered in a closet in his house, when he returned to his room with the officers to reconstruct the events. The accused admitted to having smothered the victim with a pillow because she was getting worked up and he did not want her to wake his parents up. He said that the victim had lost patience while they talked about an affair she had been having with another man. The accused added that she had insulted him and that they were both under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. A jury found the accused guilty of second degree murder. The Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal of the accused. It held, inter alia, that there was no air of reality to the defence of provocation and that the trial judge’s instructions to the jury had been appropriate.