Appeal from manslaughter conviction. Mr. Big operation. Trial judge admitted into evidence a videotaped statement made by a co-accused implicating the accused.
Held: Appeal dismissed.
Necessity and threshold reliability established. “The essential question … is whether it was adjudicatively unfair to introduce the evidence … it is important to bear in mind that the appellant had no right to expect that a criminal associate might not implicate him … There is no basis for some form of automatic carry-over of the policy concerns as to conscription of person against themselves by despicable trickery and manipulation to a situation where the same person incidentally implicates a third party … The evolution of the common law described in Hart [2014] 2 SCR 58 does not therefore carry with it analysis under s. 24(2) of the Charter to carry over to other uses beyond the rights of the target.”
P. Milczarek – Defence Counsel