Following a judge-alone trial, the court convicted the accused of sexual assault arising from sexual activity with a trainee bartender in a workplace washroom.
The court held the complainant was so intoxicated that she lacked capacity to consent, and further found the accused could not rely on any defence of reasonable belief because he took no reasonable steps to ascertain informed and voluntary consent as required by the Criminal Code.
The reasons also addressed the power imbalance between a manager and a subordinate employee, observing that any apparent consent would in any event have been vulnerable to vitiation by abuse of authority.
Applying the W (D) framework, the court rejected the accused's version and accepted the complainant's evidence on the core issue of non-consent.
