The Court allowed a criminal appeal from a Crown appeal against acquittals on sexual interference and sexual assault charges involving the mistake-of-age defence under s. 150.1(4) of the Criminal Code.
It held the trial judge made no legal error in assessing whether the accused took all reasonable steps to ascertain age, and that the appellate majority improperly recast disagreements with factual inferences as legal errors.
The Court clarified that evidence arising after the sexual activity may still be relevant where used to assess credibility or the reasonableness of pre-contact age perception, while post-contact steps themselves remain irrelevant to the statutory requirement.
It further confirmed that Crown appeals from acquittal require legal error and materiality meeting a reasonable degree of certainty.
