Mr. Levy

The accused, charged with domestic and sexual assault offences, brought a Stage Two application under s. 278.92 of the Criminal Code to adduce five private records belonging to the complainant.

The records included greeting cards, letters, and a social media message.

The defence argued the records contained prior inconsistent statements relevant to the complainant's credibility.

The court found that the records met the admissibility threshold, as they had significant probative value that was not substantially outweighed by the danger of prejudice to the proper administration of justice.

The application to adduce the records at trial was granted.

The applicants, who were arrested for robbery and firearms offences, brought a motion to exclude evidence under s. 24(2) of the Charter, alleging breaches of their s. 10(b) right to counsel.

The police delayed the applicants' access to counsel for over five and a half hours without justification, and questioned one applicant before he could speak to a lawyer.

The court found serious violations of s. 10(b) that were aggravated by poor note-taking, failure to inform the applicants of the delay, and leaving one applicant partially undressed on the street.

Applying the Grant test, the court concluded that admitting the evidence would bring the administration of justice into disrepute and excluded the evidence.