Decision of the Week

On January 15, 2019 the Supreme Court of Canada heard the appeal of R. v. Fedyck and rendered the following decision:

The Court — We agree with the reasons of the majority in the Court of Appeal. Accordingly the appeal is dismissed.

2019 SCC 3

The original appeal was not unanimous. R. v. Fedyck, 2018 MBCA 74 featured a significant dissent by Justice Beard. The evidence was circumstantial, and the issue on the appeal was whether the verdict was unreasonable or could not be supported by the evidence.

[24]                     The role of an appellate court, in reviewing a conviction based on circumstantial evidence, is to focus on “the question of whether the inferences drawn by the trial judge, having regard to the stan­dard of proof, were reasonably open to him” (Villaroman at para 67).

2018 MBCA 74