Court of Appeal for Ontario

CITATION: R. v. Rawlins, 2007 ONCA 772

DATE: 20071109

DOCKET: C44027

MOLDAVER, SHARPE and BLAIR JJ.A.

BETWEEN:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

Respondent

and

DELANO RAWLINS

Appellant

Counsel:

Leslie Maunder for the appellant

Moiz Rahman for the respondent

Heard and endorsed: November 8, 2007

On appeal from conviction by Justice Christopher M. Speyer of the Superior Court of Justice, sitting with a jury, dated September 16, 2003.

APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT

[1] There was no obligation on the trial judge to conduct an inquiry, in this case, as to whether the triers understood their role and/or were themselves biased. The appellant’s complaint is tantamount to saying that the trial judge ought to have instructed all triers that a “Yes” response required that the potential juror be automatically disqualified. That is not the law: see R. v. Brown (2005), 194 C.C.C. (3d) 76 at para. 40, where the court held that “determining whether or not a particular prospective juror is acceptable on the basis of the answer to a single question involves not only an assessment of the answer given, but also an assessment of the demeanour and reaction of the prospective juror in answering the question”.

[2] The appeal is dismissed.