Case information

Charter of Rights and Freedoms — Right to counsel — Right to silence — Criminal law — Evidence — Admissibility of utterances by accused — Whether Court of Appeal misapplied and incorrectly narrowed test for a person in authority — Standard of review applicable to trial judge’s failure to adjudicate application to exclude statements for breach of right to counsel — Whether Court of Appeal mischaracterized failure to adjudicate application to exclude statements — Whether accused’s right to silence was engaged and violated — Whether utterances obtained in breach of s. 10(b) of the Charter ought to have been excluded?

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.

(PUBLICATION BAN IN CASE)

A police officer entered Mr. Berry’s apartment to determine the safety of Mr. Berry’s children. The children had been stabbed to death. Mr. Berry was found in a bathtub, barely conscious and severely injured. When firefighters and paramedics extracted him from the bathtub, he repeatedly said “kill me” and “leave me alone”. In a hospital after surgery, he mouthed “kill me” to a nurse and his sister, who is an RCMP officer. Mr. Berry was detained in the hospital under the Mental Health Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 288, and examined by a psychiatrist. While detained he wrote a note to his sister. The trial judge admitted Mr. Berry’s out-of-court statements to the firefighters, paramedics, his sister, the nurse and the psychiatrist. A jury convicted Mr. Berry on two counts of second degree murder. The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal.