DATE: 20040420

DOCKET: C40058

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

RE: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Respondent) – and – LLOYD EVANS (Appellant)

BEFORE: ROSENBERG, BORINS and FELDMAN JJ.A.

COUNSEL: Leslie Maunder For the appellant

Croft Michaelson For the respondent

HEARD: April 16, 2004

RELEASED ORALLY: April 16, 2004

On appeal from conviction by Justice Norman D. Dyson of the Superior Court of Justice dated May 6, 2003 and sentence imposed on May 8, 2003.

E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] The appellant submits that the trial judge erred in relying on Officer Kirkpatrick’s evidence as expert evidence. However, the testimony was clearly not admitted as expert evidence and we do not read the trial judge’s reasons for conviction as using it that way.

[2] In our view, the trial judge properly used the evidence as the officer’s opinion as to his understanding of the use of the slang terms in a conversation to which he was a party. The Crown did not need to rely on that single piece of evidence to show that this was the exclusive meaning of the term. No single piece of evidence needs to bear the entire burden of proof. The officer’s evidence of his understanding of the meaning of the slang term together with other evidence such as the packaging of the substance and what was commonly sold in the neighbourhood was sufficient to prove the charge of holding out in the circumstances of this case.

[3] Accordingly the appeal from conviction is dismissed.

Signed: “Rosenberg J.A.”

“S. Borins J.A.”

“K. Feldman J.A.”