This course will introduce students to the law of evidence in Canada. It will examine how the common law, statutes, and the Constitution interact to govern the proof of facts in both civil and criminal trials. Topics to be addressed include: burdens of proof; the role of the trial judge in managing the introduction of evidence; methods of presenting evidence; witness competency and compellability; relevance; and the various exclusionary rules that operate to limit the kinds of proof that can be received at trial (i.e. the rules governing hearsay, privilege, expert opinion evidence, etc.). The course will engage ethical issues that arise in the context of evidence law. It will consider how some rules of evidence have evolved historically, and it will attend to the social, political, and institutional contexts in which evidence law operates. The course will encourage critical reflection on the theories, purposes, and justifications that animate evidentiary rules, and on how those rules impact different individuals and communities.

To prepare for each class, students will be asked to view pre-recorded lectures and/or complete assigned readings. Class time will be dedicated to further lectures, discussions, and practice exercises. Students will also complete 10 short online (eClass) exercises outside of class time, designed to help reinforce the material as the semester progresses. Those exercises will be graded on a complete/incomplete basis, for up to 5% of the course grade. All students will write the same sit-down final examination. Students may elect to complete an optional assignment (case comments), which will reduce the total value of the final examination from 95% to 75%. The optional assignment will include written and oral components. The oral component will take the form of individual discussions with the instructor.

This course will provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of evidence law. After discussing evidence law’s place in the legal system, the course will move on to questions about competence and compellability. This will be followed by a consideration of what makes evidence “relevant” – the threshold requirement for admissibility. The rules governing credibility will be considered, as will the most common exclusionary rules, and the exceptions to them. This will include hearsay evidence (and its most common exceptions, including the principled exception), opinion evidence (and its exceptions, including expert evidence), and character evidence (and its exceptions, including the “similar fact” rule). By the end of the course, students should: • Understand the goals of Evidence Law • Understand the sources of Evidence Law and their interrelationships • Be able to identify and analyze evidentiary problems in fact scenarios and resolve them with reference to prevailing evidentiary rules (common law, statutory and Charter). • Understand the procedural requirements for litigating different evidentiary issues. • Understand, on a practical level, how evidentiary issues are litigated.

This course bridges the divide between law school and a criminal law practice. Students will receive advanced instruction on a variety of topics at the intersection of criminal procedure and evidence. Students will then learn how to apply these legal principles to a trial. Students will receive a “disclosure” or “Crown” package as though they are working through a real trial. Using this material, students will learn how to formulate Notices of Application and Response, how to develop a factual foundation to support or refute a motion, and how best to present the facts on a motion. Class topics will focus on a variety of different motions commonly raised in criminal trials including Charter applications (search and seizure, arbitrary detention, right to counsel motions), applications to lead expert evidence, and similar fact applications.