Charanjit Kaur Gill

In a joint first‑degree murder trial arising from a gang‑related shooting, the court considered whether the accused had put his character in issue through testimony denying gang affiliation and explaining incriminating letters written while in custody.

The court held that the accused’s narrative about his upbringing and alleged reluctance to join a gang implicitly asserted good character and therefore opened the door to cross‑examination on prior criminal conduct and gang‑related activity.

The court also ruled that certain previously redacted portions of letters written by the accused from custody could be admitted after reconsideration of a pre‑trial ruling, because the accused’s testimony materially altered the probative value of the evidence and risked misleading the jury.

The court concluded that the probative value of the additional passages outweighed their prejudicial effect and that severance of the co‑accused was not required.

In a first degree murder prosecution involving alleged gang rivalry, the accused applied to qualify a sociologist as an expert witness on street gangs.

The Crown opposed the qualification, arguing that the proposed expert lacked sufficient knowledge of the specific Toronto gangs at issue and that aspects of his methodology and impartiality were problematic.

The court conducted the two‑stage admissibility analysis for expert evidence under Mohan and Abbey, expressing significant concerns about the expert’s methodology, potential bias, inflated data samples, and limited familiarity with Toronto gangs.

Despite these reservations, the court held that the threshold for excluding defence expert evidence was not met and qualified the witness as an expert in limited areas relating to gang culture and behaviour.

The court then set detailed restrictions on the permissible scope of the expert’s testimony, particularly preventing opinions that would approach the ultimate issue of gang membership.