Ariane Gagnon-Rocque

A police officer was convicted of fraud over $5,000 after lying and wilfully withholding information during an assessment by a physician-arbitrator responsible for determining his disability diagnosis, thereby depriving his employer.

The majority of the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the conviction; the dissenting judge would have substituted a verdict of attempted fraud.

The appellant appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada as of right on the basis of a dissent on a question of law.

The majority of the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, substantially for the reasons of the Court of Appeal majority, finding sufficient causal connection between the dishonest acts and deprivation to sustain the fraud conviction.

In a criminal appeal as of right, the Court addressed whether an erroneous jury instruction on fabrication of alibi and evidentiary rulings required appellate intervention.

The Court confirmed that an alibi-fabrication instruction must be limited to an inference of consciousness of guilt and requires independent evidence linking the accused to deliberate fabrication.

Although the instruction was erroneous, the Court held the evidence against the accused was overwhelming.

Applying the curative proviso in s. 686(1)(b)(iii) of the Criminal Code, the convictions for first degree murder and attempted murder were upheld.