The Crown brought an application under s. 714.1 of the Criminal Code to allow six witnesses to testify remotely at a first-degree murder trial.
The witnesses included one civilian and five medical professionals, two of whom were proposed expert witnesses.
The court granted the application for the civilian witness due to her documented health issues and panic attacks related to traveling.
However, the court dismissed the application for the medical professionals, finding that the presumptive rule of in-person testimony should not be displaced merely for the convenience of busy professionals, especially given the seriousness of the charges and the high materiality of the expert evidence.
