Anders Hoenisch

The defendant brought a motion to compel the plaintiff to answer questions from an examination for discovery that was unilaterally adjourned by the defendant's previous counsel after a single objection regarding the scope of medical history questions.

The court dismissed the motion, finding the adjournment improper as it did not meet the high threshold of futility required by Rule 34.14 of the Rules of Civil Procedure.

The court ordered the discovery to resume and awarded partial indemnity costs to the plaintiff, criticizing the defendant's counsel's conduct as unprofessional and an abuse of process.

The appellant, G.H., appealed convictions for sexual assault and related sexual touching charges, and sought leave to appeal his sentence.

The trial judge had found the complainant credible but with reliability concerns, which were addressed by confirmatory evidence from the complainant's brother.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the conviction appeal, finding no error in the trial judge's assessment of evidence, including the use of confirmatory evidence and the holistic approach to ongoing sexual abuse allegations.

The Court also dismissed the sentence appeal, finding the five-year sentence within range despite a factual error by the trial judge.

However, a lifetime Sex Offender Information Registration Act (SOIRA) order was varied to 20 years in light of recent Supreme Court of Canada jurisprudence.

The court designated the offender as a dangerous offender based on the sexual offender pathway, finding a high likelihood of future harmful recidivism due to disturbing cognitive distortions, lack of empathy, and personality disorder traits.

However, the court imposed a determinate sentence of 8 years (plus 7 years and 15 days pre-sentence credit, totaling approximately 15 years) followed by a 10-year Long Term Supervision Order, rather than an indeterminate sentence, finding a reasonable expectation that the offender's risk could be managed in the community with appropriate treatment and supervision.