The Crown sought to admit three out-of-court statements attributed to the deceased complainant, Michael O'Drane, under the principled exception to the hearsay rule established in R. v. Khan.
The statements consisted of: (1) a comment overheard by a witness when O'Drane spoke to paramedics; (2) oral statements made to a police officer at the hospital; and (3) a videotaped interview conducted four days after the alleged assault.
The court rejected all three statements as failing to meet the threshold reliability requirement, finding insufficient process-based and content-based indicia of reliability.
The court emphasized that ultimate inferences from corroborating evidence cannot be used to establish the reliability of hearsay statements.
