COURT FILE NO.: CR-19-0009

DATE: 20191230

ONTARIO

SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE

BETWEEN:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN

Respondent

– and –

ANDREW BRUCE HUNT

Appellant

Adam G. Zegouras, for the Crown

Howard L. Krongold, for the Appellant

HEARD at Belleville: 25 September 2019

On appeal from the conviction entered at Belleville by Justice Geoffrey Griffin of the Ontario Court of Justice on 2 November 2018.

REASONS FOR DECISION

MEW J.

[1] Andrew Hunt was convicted of two counts of criminal harassment and two counts of breaching a probation order.

[2] The first count of criminal harassment arises from allegations that the appellant had repeatedly followed Donna Robbins from place to place between 18 April and 30 May 2017.

[3] The second count of criminal harassment alleges that Mr. Hunt engaged in “threatening conduct” in July 2017 by leaving an obscene notebook for Jim Robbins (the husband of Donna Robbins) to find.

[4] Counsel have narrowed the issues on appeal to two alleged errors of law made by the trial judge, namely:

a. By misapplying the law on what constitutes “follow from place to place”, one of the elements of the offence of criminal harassment as defined by s. 264(2)(a) of the Criminal Code and, in particular, by failing to follow the decision of R. v. Lenser, 2003 38217 (ON SC); and

b. By applying the incorrect legal test concerning the admissibility of evidence of other discreditable conduct for the purposes identifying the defendant as author of the notebook.

[5] The appellant does not challenge the trial judge’s findings of fact. Accordingly, both grounds of appeal apply to the trial judge’s legal findings. The applicable standard of review is therefore correctness: Housen v. Nikolaisen, 2002 SCC 33 at paras. 8 and 36.

Background

[6] The appellant and Donna Robbins had met in 2016 at the place that they both then worked. They started off as friends but eventually became intimate. A few months later, Donna Robbins ended the relationship. At all material times, Donna Robbins was married to Jim Robbins.

[7] Shortly after the relationship ended, the appellant began following Ms. Robbins. This eventually led to Mr. Hunt being charged with, and pleading guilty to, one count of