COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO
Feldman, Simmons and Pepall JJ.A.
BETWEEN
Her Majesty the Queen
Respondent
and
Hamza Zekaria
Appellant
Hamza Zekaria, in person
Brian Snell, duty counsel
Howard Leibovich, for the respondent
Heard and released orally: April 6, 2016
On appeal from the conviction entered on February 9, 2015 by Justice J. D. Nadelle of the Ontario Court of Justice.
ENDORSEMENT
1This was a circumstantial case and the trial judge was prepared to draw an inference that the appellant had the requisite knowledge. Duty counsel argues that this inference was not the only rational inference available on the record.
2We disagree.
3The circumstances only pointed to one conclusion.
4We are also not persuaded that the trial judge reversed the onus of proof. At page 2 of his reasons, the trial judge was not commenting on the accused’s failure to testify but on the fact that the evidence did not disclose any reasonable explanation other than guilt.
5We decline to receive the fresh evidence the appellant sought to tender on appeal. Apart from the absence of any motion seeking to admit fresh evidence, we fail to see any relevance in the proposed evidence.
6The appeal is dismissed.
“K. Feldman J.A.”
“Janet Simmons J.A.”
“S.E. Pepall J.A.”