On a blended voir dire in a sexual offence prosecution, the accused sought exclusion of two utterances made at arrest and during transport, and a videotaped police interview, on voluntariness and Charter grounds.
The court applied the confessions rule and held the utterances were spontaneous and voluntary, and the interview statement was also voluntary despite deceptive police comments about consent, which did not rise to community-shocking trickery.
The court found no breach of ss. 10(a), 10(b), or 7 of the Charter, including because the accused was informed of the charges and consulted duty counsel before the interview.
References in the interview to separate child abuse allegations and a Children’s Aid Society investigation were ordered excised as irrelevant.
