Margaret A. Mereigh

In this criminal appeal, the Court considered when corroborative evidence can establish the threshold reliability required to admit hearsay under the principled exception.

The Crown sought admission of a co-accused’s video re-enactment implicating the respondent in two murders after the declarant refused to testify.

A majority held the trial judge relied on corroborative evidence that did not sufficiently answer the specific hearsay danger of fabrication, and concluded threshold reliability was not met.

The appeal was dismissed and the order for a new trial remained in place, with a dissent that would have restored the convictions.

In a criminal appeal, the accused challenged appellate convictions for aggravated assault and assault with a weapon arising from an attempted circumcision of a four-year-old child.

The appellate court had set aside acquittals on those counts and stayed a conviction for criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

The Court held that all elements of the charged offences were established on the record.

It declined to address whether the assault-with-a-weapon count should have been stayed because that issue was not raised.

The appeal was dismissed.