The Crown brought a pre-trial application seeking an order that the defence provide a list of its witnesses to be read to prospective jurors during jury selection to identify potential conflicts.
The defence opposed the application, arguing it violated the accused's right against self-incrimination and the principle that the defence need not reveal its case until the close of the Crown's case.
The court dismissed the Crown's application, finding that compelling the defence to reveal its witness list at the outset would amount to conscripting the accused against himself.
The court adopted a procedure proposed by the defence where a combined, anonymized list of Crown and defence witnesses would be provided to the trial judge and prospective jurors silently.
