Samuel Walker

During a jury trial for drug trafficking and firearms offences, the accused sought to introduce the criminal record of a third-party suspect.

In response, the Crown brought an application to introduce the accused's prior youth conviction for assault causing bodily harm as rebuttal evidence of disposition.

The court dismissed the Crown's application, holding that because the accused's youth sentence had ceased to have effect, section 82 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act deemed him not to have been convicted of the offence, rendering the record inadmissible at that stage of the trial.

The applicant, a small craft distillery, applied for a declaration that the markup imposed by the LCBO on spirits sold at its on-site retail store was an unconstitutional tax under the Constitution Act, 1867.

The court dismissed the application, finding that the markup was a proprietary charge levied by the LCBO as the owner and commercial supplier of the spirits.

Alternatively, the court held that the markup was a contractual term freely agreed to by the applicant in exchange for the authorization to sell its products.