In a murder prosecution, the Crown brought a pre-trial application seeking to qualify a forensic document examiner as an expert in handwriting analysis to assist in establishing authorship of seized writings.
One accused opposed the application, arguing the proposed expert lacked sufficient qualifications and that her work had not been peer reviewed and used a different classification methodology than other forensic standards.
The court applied the test for admissibility of expert evidence from R. v. Mohan and held that the witness possessed the requisite specialized knowledge through education, training, and experience at the Centre of Forensic Sciences.
Concerns raised by the defence related to methodology and review processes went to the weight of the evidence rather than admissibility.
The witness was therefore qualified to provide opinion evidence in handwriting analysis.
