Justice N.S. Kastner

The accused was charged with two break-ins occurring within 900 metres of each other in Brampton on September 2, 2018.

The first involved a break and enter with theft at a residential property.

The second involved a break and enter with sexual assault of a thirteen-year-old girl.

The Crown's case relied primarily on circumstantial evidence including video surveillance footage, the complainant's testimony, probation officer identification evidence, and recovered stolen property.

The defence challenged identification and the reliability of the complainant's evidence.

The trial judge found the accused guilty on all counts based on a holistic assessment of the circumstantial evidence, rejecting the defence application to admit similar fact evidence regarding prior convictions.

The Crown charged the defendant with impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol concentration exceeding 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.

The defendant was found slumped over the steering wheel of a running vehicle in a parking lot.

The Crown established that the defendant occupied the driver's seat of a running motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration exceeding the legal limit.

The defendant's evidence that he did not intend to drive and was merely waiting for a ride was rejected as not credible.

The court found the defendant guilty of impaired driving and stayed the over 80 charge pursuant to R. v. Kienapple.

The accused was convicted of historical sexual assault against his stepson (A.B.) and assault against his biological son (C.D.).

The stepson was approximately 14 years old when he was anally penetrated by the accused while asleep in his own bedroom.

The biological son was approximately six years old when the accused forcefully removed his shirt in a closed washroom during a party.

The court imposed a sentence of three and a half years in penitentiary for the sexual assault and 30 days concurrent for the assault, rejecting the defence position for a conditional sentence and accepting the Crown's position that denunciation and deterrence must take precedence.

The applicant challenged the validity of two search warrants executed at his residence on Charter section 8 grounds.

The applicant was originally convicted of possession of child pornography following a nine-day trial.

Upon reopening the trial, the court examined whether the police exceeded the scope of the first warrant by seizing CDs and DVDs that the issuing justice had expressly prohibited.

The court found that the issuing justice's oral directions limiting the search to digital cameras and memory cards were binding on the police, and that the seizure of the Montreal CD and other storage devices constituted over-seizure in violation of section 8 of the Charter.

The court further found that the second warrant could not have been issued without the information derived from the unlawfully seized Montreal CD.

The court excluded the evidence and dismissed the charge.

The accused was charged with four Criminal Code offences arising from alleged conduct on May 3, 2014: assault causing bodily harm, sexual assault with a weapon, theft under, and breach of probation.

The case turned entirely on the credibility and reliability of the complainant, a homeless woman with substance addictions.

The court found the complainant credible despite her difficult circumstances and inconsistencies on peripheral matters.

The court accepted her evidence that the accused assaulted her, causing a head injury; refused to return her cellphone when she requested it to call police; and raped her at knifepoint.

The presence of the accused's semen in the complainant's underwear corroborated the sexual assault allegation.

The accused was convicted on all four counts.

Maple Lodge Farms was convicted of twenty counts of violating the Health of Animals Act and Regulations by failing to prevent undue suffering of chickens during transportation through inadequate protection from adverse weather and insufficient ventilation.

Between December 2008 and April 2010, over 25,450 chickens died during transport or upon arrival at the facility.

The corporation received a fine of $80,000 on two representative counts and a three-year suspended sentence with probation on the remaining eighteen counts.

The probation order required the corporation to expend a minimum of $1,000,000 on capital improvements to trailers, holding facilities, and transportation procedures, with oversight by an independent expert and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.