Reassessing Principal Exception of Hearsay: The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) Clarifies the Threshold of Reliability in R v Charles
Truth in a criminal court is often delivered second-hand. Truth is mentioned through stories, vague statements, whispers, and recollections. But what happens when those second-hand truths are considered admissible without ever being tested? R v Charles compelled the courts to confront this question. The case examines whether a witness’s out-of-court statement possessed indicia of reliability and whether the evidence is considered admissible if the witness cannot recall the st
Hearsay Evidence in R. v. Papasotiriou-Lanteigne
The case R. v. Papasotiriou-Lanteigne provides a detailed examination of the admissibility of hearsay evidence, with a particular focus on the principle of threshold liability. In 2018, the defendants were convicted of first-degree murder by a jury in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice. As the case proceeded to appeal in October of 2022, the trial judge revisited his decision to admit hearsay evidence presented by the defence.
Admissibility of Hearsay: Schneider and Contextualization
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) describes hearsay as an out of court statement admitted for the truth of its contents. Hearsay is presumptively inadmissible, meaning that it is not to be admitted as evidence in a trial unless it satisfies certain exceptions established by the courts. R v Schneider provides a recent example of the court considering exceptions to the hearsay rule. It centres on the admission of an overheard phone conversation where the accused admitted respon
Discretion and Discrimination - Hearsay Admission in Apprehension Hearings for Child Protection Matters
In 2022, Indigenous people accounted for 7.7% of children under 15 years old; however, they represented 53.8% of children in foster care.” Additionally, over 50% of Indigenous children in foster care lived with non-Indigenous parents. These statistics raise enormous concern, as even with the TRC Calls to Action and Bill C-92, Indigenous children continue to be taken away from their families and culture at an alarming rate.
From Tradition to Testimony: The Role of Indigenous Oral History as Evidence
Indigenous oral history transfers knowledge and laws throughout generations and has increasingly been used as evidence in Canadian courts. A failure to adequately consider oral history within legal disputes would be problematic in the wake of Canada’s ongoing attempts at reconciliation.Using Indigenous oral history as a form of evidence in the courtroom highlights the difficulties that arise when the common law system attempts to integrate Indigenous law and traditions in a n
