DATE: 20010614 DOCKET: C34235

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

RE: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN (Respondent) –and– JOEL JOSEPH (Appellant)

BEFORE: FINLAYSON, WEILER and GOUDGE JJ.A.

COUNSEL: Gregory Lafontaine, for the appellant Scott C. Hutchison, for the respondent

HEARD: June 13, 2001

RELEASED ORALLY: June 13, 2001

On appeal from the conviction imposed by Justice Katherine L. McLeod dated March 10, 2000 and from the sentence imposed by Justice MacLeod dated April 20, 2000.

E N D O R S E M E N T

[1] It is clear that, at the end of the case, the suggestion that the appellant did not leave the scene of the accident with the intent to flee civil or criminal liability was totally destroyed. Whether or not the trial judge was correct in her treatment of the presumption, taking the Crown’s evidence as a whole, it is our view that, with or without the presumption, the result would necessarily have been the same – the appeal would have been dismissed.

[2] For these reasons, the appeal is dismissed.

Signed: “G.D. Finlayson J.A.” “K.M. Weiler J.A.” “S.T. Goudge J.A.”