The accused was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of Edward Cieslik, who died from heroin overdose.
The Crown alleged that the accused unlawfully procured heroin for the deceased, divided it into doses, and injected him with one dose, causing his death.
The trial examined whether the accused's actions constituted unlawful act manslaughter or criminal negligence.
The court found that while the accused did traffic in heroin and inject the deceased once, the deceased's voluntary self-administration of a fatal second dose constituted an intervening act that severed the causal chain between the accused's conduct and the death.
The court applied the principle from R. v. Kennedy, finding that the autonomous decision of an informed adult to self-inject a lethal dose breaks legal causation.
The accused was acquitted of manslaughter.
