The Crown applied for an order permitting six witnesses to testify by videoconference at the accused's fraud trial.
Three witnesses resided in the United States and three resided in Canada outside Ontario.
The accused opposed the application for one US witness on the basis of solicitor-client privilege, and opposed the Canadian witnesses on the basis of credibility and memory issues.
The court granted the application, finding that privilege issues should be dealt with separately and that credibility issues could be assessed equally well over video.
The court concluded the statutory tests under ss. 714.1 and 714.2 of the Criminal Code were met.
