Court File and Parties

CITATION: R. v. Francis, 2009 ONCA 145

DATE: 20090213

DOCKET: C47549

COURT OF APPEAL FOR ONTARIO

Feldman, MacPherson and Armstrong JJ.A.

BETWEEN:

Her Majesty the Queen

Respondent

and

Michael Francis

Appellant

Counsel:

Brian A. Callender, for the appellant

Dena Bonnet, for the respondent

Heard and endorsed: February 10, 2009

On appeal from conviction by Justice A. deLotbiniére Panet of the Superior Court of Justice dated September 15, 2006.

APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT

[1] The appellant raises the issue of unreasonable verdict on the basis that the trial judge failed to address in his reasons the discrepancy in the evidence between the witness Ms. Wassef, the police officer Lund and the witness Ms. Legere as to whether the robber had a Jamaican accent.

[2] In our view, there is no merit to this submission. The trial judge’s reasons were quite comprehensive addressing most of the discrepancies in the identification evidence. Defence counsel at trial did not raise the accent issue in submissions, arguably reflecting her view that it was not a significant point. The evidence of Ms. Legere on the point was not strong. She had only spoken to the man she identified once on another occasion. Both Ms. Wassef and Detective Lund said the appellant had no Jamaican accent.

[3] The trial judge dealt specifically with the other evidence given by Ms. Legere and concluded that her evidence was credible as to her description of the man she saw, including his clothing, and the trial judge concluded that the discrepancy as to time which he did note was of little consequence.

[4] We see no error in either the reasons or the conclusion reached by the trial judge. We would therefore dismiss the appeal.