The Crown brought a voir dire application to qualify an interpreter for the complainant in a sexual assault trial.
The proposed interpreter, Arum Narayan, had prior experience but lacked formal training, could not read or write Telugu, and his fluency for legal contexts was not sufficiently proven.
The court applied the R. v. Tran test for interpreter qualifications (continuity, precision, impartiality, competency, and contemporaneousness).
The application was dismissed, as the court was not satisfied on a balance of probabilities that the interpreter met the high standard required under section 14 of the Charter, emphasizing the vagueness of the evidence regarding his qualifications.
