MCLNugget: McGuigan ONCA

York (Regional Municipality) v McGuigan, 2018 ONCA 1062

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The Issue

Are the excerpts of a user manual related to the “testing and operation” of a speed measuring device subject to disclosure under the first party regime or production under the third party regime – as well as the related issue of relevance of such records.

The Answer

The “testing and operation” instructions contained in the user manual for speed measuring devices are subject to disclosure under the first party regime. While they are not fruits of the investigation, they are “obviously relevant” and thus disclosable.

The Fine Print

The issue came to the Court of Appeal via an appeal from a certiorari decision – of interest is that in a footnote in the ruling the court commented that the “writ of certiorari is no longer issued We use the phrase the “certiorari order” as shorthand for the more cumbersome “order in lieu of certiorari” [footnote 2]. The Justice of the Peace [JP] had ordered disclosure. The Crown succeeded in quashing that order on the review. The Court of Appeal reinstated the initial order. The notable points include:

First, here the JP had the jurisdiction to “determine disclosure issues and to grant or deny disclosure order…[and] to determine whether the disclosure sought fell within the first party or third party disclosure regime” [para 63].

Second, on the issue of the availability of certiorari, the court noted that s141(4) of the Provincial Offences Act limits such a review to cases where there is a “substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice” [para 58]. Properly considered, certiorari should not have been granted.

Third, the manual related to operation and testing is “obviously relevant” and falls under first party disclosure in line with the principles of R v McNeil, 2009 SCC 3.

Settled Law

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Lam was convicted of driving with an illegal blood alcohol concentration [BAC] – he was over 80. This was his second trial.  The Crown sought to invoke the presumption of identity and attempted to file the certificate of analysis as evidence of Lam’s BAC at the time of driving. The defence opposed the filing of the certificate and argued that the failure of the police to have the approved instrument inspected in accordance with the Alcohol Test Committee’s [ATC] recommendations was fatal to the Crown’s case.

The trial judge accepted this argument and found that the police failure to send the Approved Instrument for annual inspection for 13 months constituted evidence which tended to show that the instrument was operated improperly. The accused was acquitted. The Crown appealed.

The Summary Conviction Appeal [SCA] judge held that the trial judge erred and ordered a new trial. In particular, the SCA found that:

elevating the recommendations of the Alcohol Test Committee that approved instruments be inspected annually to a condition precedent for proper operation of the instrument. This error led the trial judge to conclude that the presumption of identity in s258(1)(c) was not engaged and thus could not be invoked to establish the application’s blood alcohol concentration when he was operating his motor vehicle [@6]

Lam appealed to the Court of Appeal. The Court refused to hear the appeal: 2016 ONCA 850

The Court did so for four reasons.

First, leave from summary conviction proceedings are exceptional. Moreover, there is a need for finality. When all is said and done Lam will have had 2 trials, 2 summary conviction appeals and this journey to the Court of Appeal. [@12]

Second, the grounds of appeal are a mix of law and fact. With respect to the law it concerns only “the application of well-settled principles of law in no need of restatement or refinement” [@13]

With respect to the misapprehension of facts, the facts in this case as so many others, rarely “transcend the idiosyncrasies of the case at hand” [@13]

Third:

invocation of the frequency with which alcohol-driving prosecutions populate the lists in the Ontario Court of Justice to fund a claim of wider application proves too much. If frequency of prosecution were the touchstone for granting leave to appeal, leave would become the rule, not the exception in alcohol-driving offences.

Fourth, the substantive issue is in fact well settled law: See St-Onge-Lamoureux, 2012 SCC 57 "(not Jackson, 2015 ONCA 832 as the respondent suggests)" [@15].

LT

An end to unmeritorious "disclosure" applications?

David Jackson was arrested by the police. They police believed that his blood alcohol concentration was over the legal limit while he was operating a motor vehicle. Subsequent to arrest he provided breath samples into an approved instrument; the results indicated he was "over 80”. He was charged with “over 80”.

Prior to trial his counsel sought disclosure of (i) service records for the approved instrument; (ii) usage and calibration records; and (iii) downloaded data “bracketing the breath tests” of Jackson. The Crown refused to provide these materials citing their position that the records were third party records and were also clearly irrelevant. In response Jackson brought a disclosure motion before the trial judge.

The trial judge held that the records were subject to disclosure under Stinchcombe. The Crown and the police, the Ottawa Police Service, brought a certiorari application seeking to quash that ruling. That application was dismissed. The Crown appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal: 2015 ONCA 832.

Several issues were dealt with at the Court of Appeal. Arguably two of the most pertinent ones dealt with the nature of the records and the potential relevance thereof.

With respect to the nature of the records, Watt JA offered the following overview of the governing principles:

First Party (Stinchcombe) Disclosure

Under Stinchcombe, the Crown has a broad duty to disclose all relevant, non-privileged information in its possession or control to persons charged with criminal offences. Disclosure of this information allows the person charged to understand the case she or he has to meet and permits him or her to make full answer and defence to the charges: Stinchcombe, at pp. 336-40; R. v. Quesnelle, 2014 SCC 46 (CanLII), [2014] 2 S.C.R. 390, at para. 11. The duty is triggered upon request without recourse to a court: McNeil, at para. 17.

For the purposes of first party or Stinchcombe disclosure, the term “the Crown” refers to the prosecuting Crown only, not to all Crown entities, federal and provincial. All other Crown entities, including the police, are third parties: Quesnelle, at para. 11;McNeil, at para. 22. Apart from the police duty to supply the prosecuting Crown with the fruits of the investigation, records in the hands of third parties, including the police and other Crown entities, are generally not subject to the Stinchcombe disclosure rules: Quesnelle, at para. 11; McNeil, at para. 25.

The assimilation of the police and Crown as a single entity for disclosure purposes is narrowly confined. Apart from the police duty to disclose to the Crown the fruits of the investigation, the two are unquestionably separate and independent entities, not only in fact but also in law. The police investigate. The Crown decides whether, what, whom and how to prosecute: McNeil, at paras. 23, 25. Production of criminal investigation files involving third parties, at least as a general rule, falls to be determined on an O’Connor application. This is so at least in the absence of a nexus between the third party and subject investigation: McNeil, at para. 25.

The Stinchcombe disclosure regime extends only to material relating to the accused’s case in the possession or control of the prosecuting Crown entity. This material is commonly described as the “fruits of the investigation”, that is to say, material gathered during the investigation of the offence with which the accused is charged: McNeil, at para. 23. Relevant information includes not only information related to those matters the Crown intends to adduce in evidence against the accused, but also any information in respect of which there is a reasonable possibility that it may assist the accused in the exercise of the right to make full answer and defence: McNeil, at para. 17; Stinchcombe, at pp. 343-44.

Third Party (O’Connor) Production

A separate disclosure/production scheme exists for records and information in the hands of third parties, strangers to the litigation. This scarcely surprises. After all, third parties are under no obligation and have no duty to assist the parties in litigation or to disclose information to them: O’Connor, at para. 102.

The third party scheme involves two steps or stages. It is initiated by service of a subpoena duces tecum on the third party record-holder, as well as a notice of application and supporting material on the record holder and prosecuting authority: O’Connor, at para. 134. The purpose of the subpoena duces tecum is to have the material requested brought to the trial judge who will determine whether and to what extent the material will be produced. The application sets out the grounds upon which production is sought. The supporting material seeks to establish the relevance of the material to an issue at trial including:

i.               the unfolding of the narrative;

ii.             the credibility of a witness;

iii.           the reliability of other evidence; or

iv.           the competence of a witness to testify: O’Connor, at para. 134; McNeil, at paras. 27, 33.

 For the purposes of this third party production regime, a record-holder need not be a complete stranger to the litigation. Recall that Crown entities, other than the prosecuting Crown, are third parties under this regime: McNeil, at para. 13. And this is so even though some records of the same entity may be subject to the first party disclosure scheme of Stinchcombe: McNeil, at para. 15. [Pars 79-85].

Applying those principles Watt JA held that the records sought were third party records. In so concluding Watt JA noted that “[t]wo principal factors determine the disclosure/production regime that will apply”. First, the nature of the information sought; second, the party in possession of the information.

On the first issue, the court offered the following.

With respect to the nature of the information here, Watt JA held that it fell beyond the boundaries of the fruits of the investigation; indeed some of the records were created in relation to other investigations and others were created by the police service for reasons and at times wholly unconnected to the investigation at hand [paras 92-96].

With respect to who was in possession of the records, Watt JA noted that in this case the records were not in the possession of the Crown but were in the possession of a third party, The Ottawa Police Service [paras 97-98].

On the second issue, the court offered the following.

With respect to relevance, Watt JA noted that Jackson had received the usual disclosure package including the following:

A videotape of the respondent providing breath samples. The police officer’s notes. The Intoxilyzer 8000C print out for the respondent’s test. The Certificate of an Analyst attesting to the alcohol standard. The Intoxilyzer instrument log, diagnostic tests and calibration checks. The certificate of the breath technician confirming the test results of 116 and 113 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. [Para 133].

With this Watt JA noted that the other records sought did not meet the likely relevance threshold.

First, nothing on the face of the typical disclosure package provided to the respondent indicated any problem with the Intoxilyzer 8000C approved instrument or any error by the technician in its operation. No error in the test print outs. A new instrument, not due for its first annual inspection. No annual inspection or maintenance records. In short, nothing to imbue the claim of instrument malfunction or operator error with an air of reality. A fishing expedition. Season closed.

Second, the expert evidence about potential relevance of the record sought failed to ascend above the speculative. In addition, the suggestion of unspecified relevance is contradicted by the report of the Alcohol Test Committee that belies the assistance of the records sought in determining whether the instrument functioned properly for a particular subject test.

Third, the records sought have no relevance to the unfolding of the narrative of material events in this case. Historical data has nothing to say about what gave rise to this prosecution, nor about the credibility of any party involved in the making of demands or the operation of the instrument.

Fourth, the applicable standard in the third party/O’Connor production regime is more demanding than the “whether the information may be useful” criterion for first party/Stinchcombe disclosure. That a more stringent standard applies is consonant with the underlying policy considerations and the gatekeeper function assigned to the trial judge. [Paras 135-138].

Finally, and notably, Watt JA offered a “post-script”:  

It is critical for the efficient operation of trial courts, especially those in which alcohol-driving offences occupy a prominent place on the docket, that they be able to control their process. This includes the authority to discourage unmeritorious third party records applications that devour limited resources. [Emphasis added]; [para 139].

DM

New & Notable: 278.1 Restored

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The Supreme Court today released its ruling in Quesnelle addressing the scope of section 278.1 and discussing the privacy rights of victims of crime: R v Quesnelle, 2014 SCC 46. The Court unanimously overturned the Ontario Court of Appeal’s ruling (2013 ONCA 180). Two aspects of the ONCA ruling were, in my view, troubling. I commented on them in a blog at the time: A Drastic but Unfortunate Shift in the Law of Disclosure. First, the ONCA’s ruling that there were no privacy interests in police occurrence reports was flawed; and second, the ONCA’s ruling that police reports made in relation to other occurrences were not captured by the exclusionary clause of 278.1 (in other words, other occurrence reports were “records” and subject to privacy protections). The Supreme Court agrees with me (or at least that is how I see it).

In its unanimous ruling, authored by Karakastanis J, the court reviewed section 278.1 and outlined the issue on appeal as “whether these provisions apply to police occurrence reports prepared in the investigation of previous incidents involving a complainant or witness and not the offence being prosecuted. The question is whether these unrelated police occurrence reports count as “records” as defined in s. 2781. Such that the statutory regime limits apply” [para 1]. In short, the Court answered this issue as follows:

I conclude that the Mills regime applies to police occurrence reports that are not directly related to the charges against the accused.  Privacy is not an all or nothing right. Individuals involved in a criminal investigation do not forfeit their privacy interest for all future purposes; they reasonably expect that personal information in police reports will not be disclosed in unrelated matters.  Moreover, while the regime exempts investigatory and prosecutorial records, that exemption applies only to records made in relation to the particular offence in question.

Accordingly, I agree with the trial judge that the unrelated police occurrence reports at issue were “records” within the definition of s. 278.1  and thus subject to the Mills regime.  The trial judge was entitled to conclude that the reports should not be disclosed.  I would allow the appeal, set aside the order for a new trial, and restore the conviction, remitting the sentence appeal to the Court of Appeal. [Emphasis added]; [paras 2-3].

In the analysis of this issue the Court discussed two areas: (i) principles governing disclosure; and (ii) whether “unrelated” police occurrence reports are “records”.

With respect to the principles, the Court noted Stinchcombe, McNeil and O’Connor and then offered the following comments on the Mills regime:

The regime reflects Parliament’s intention to accommodate and reconcile the right of the accused to make full answer and defence with the privacy and equality rights of complainants in sexual offence cases.  In the words of Professor Lise Gotell, the regime was created in order to “to limit what it is that a woman/child complainant must be forced to reveal at trial as the price of her access to the criminal justice system” (When Privacy is not Enough:  Sexual Assault Complainants, Sexual History Evidence, and the Disclosure of Personal Records, (2006) 43 Alta. L. Rev. 743, at p. 745.).  That approach was upheld by this Court in R. v. Mills, [1999] 3 S.C.R. 668, and its constitutionality is not challenged in this appeal. [Emphasis added]; [para 14].

After discussing the procedural aspects of 278.1 the Court noted that the “mere fact that a police occurrence report concerns a complainant or witness is not enough to make the report relevant to an otherwise unrelated prosecution.  The Mills provisions echo this Court’s frequent warnings against relying on myths and stereotypes about sexual assault complainants in assessing the relevance of evidence in the context of sexual assault trials [para 17].

Turning to discuss the impact of McNeil, the Court noted that

The Mills regime governs the disclosure of “records” in sexual offence trials, but does not displace the Crown’s duty to make reasonable inquiries and obtain potentially relevant material (or the police duty to pass on material to the Crown) under McNeil.  As an officer of the court and Minister of Justice, the Crown is duty-bound to seek justice, not convictions, and to avoid wrongful convictions, in the prosecutions of all offences, including sexual offences.  The Mills regime simply replaces the obligation to produce relevant records directly with an obligation to give notice of their existence. [Para 18].

With respect to whether unrelated occurrence reports are “records” in 278.1, the Court considered two issues: first, whether the records carry a reasonable expectation of privacy; and second, whether they “fall into the exemption for investigatory and prosecutorial documents”.

First, the Court concluded unrelated occurrence reports do carry with them a reasonable expectation of privacy. Such privacy interests must be assessed in relation to the “totality of the circumstances” and are not limited to “trust-like, confidential, or therapeutic relationships” [para 27]. Privacy interests are not “an all or nothing concept”. The Court went on to discuss the “information” in these reports and the “price of disclosure” and concluded:

People provide information to police in order to protect themselves and others.  They are entitled to do so with confidence that the police will only disclose it for good reason.  The fact that the information is in the hands of the police should not nullify their interest in keeping that information private from other individuals.

Fundamentally, the privacy analysis turns on a normative question of whether we, as a society, should expect that police occurrence reports will be kept private.  Given the sensitive nature of the information frequently contained in such reports, and the impact that their disclosure can have on the privacy interests of complainants and witnesses, it seems to me that there will generally be a reasonable expectation of privacy in police occurrence reports. [Paras 43-44].

Second, the Court rejected the notion that unrelated occurrence reports are exempt as prosecutorial and investigative documents in 278.1. Interpreting the section leads to the conclusion that the exempting clause only applies to the records made in the course of the investigation in question. In making this point the Court offered the following practical comments:

If Parliament wanted to exempt unrelated police and prosecution documents from the Mills regime, it is hard to see why it would have excluded only those documents made by some police departments and not others.

This would mean that an accused whose case was investigated by a large police force would be more likely to get easy access to occurrence reports than if the case was investigated by a small force.  For example, where the RCMP is involved in an investigation, the Court of Appeal’s interpretation of the exemption would waive the Mills regime for RCMP occurrence reports from across the country [paras 57-58].

I agree – I similarly noted this anomaly would follow from the ONCA ruling in my 2013 blog:

There is nothing in the language of this exclusionary portion of 278.1 that suggests it should apply as broadly as suggested by MacFarland JA. Indeed, if it did, it would create possible odd and unfair results. Consider whether the records held by other police agencies, not those “responsible” for this investigation, but nonetheless in possession of such information would be subject to 278.1.

In concluding on the point that unrelated occurrence reports are “records” the Court rejected the position of the Criminal Lawyer’s Association of Ontario and the respondent that this interpretation of records would impact on trial fairness – in part, this argument pointed out that the Crown and defence would be on unequal footing in access to such material:

The principles of fundamental justice and trial fairness do not guarantee defence counsel the right to precisely the same privileges and procedures as the Crown and the police (Mills, at para. 111).  Nor is the right to a full answer and defence a right to pursue every conceivable tactic to be used in defending oneself against criminal prosecution.  The right to a full answer and defence is not without limit. [Para 64].

In my 2013 blog on the ONCA ruling I concluded with these thoughts:

Section 278.1 should apply to police occurrence reports. The section is broad enough to capture those reports and the exclusionary clause does not apply.

Ironically, MacFarland JA noted the following – from the preamble of the Bill to introduce the 278.1 provisions – as the “intent” of Parliament.

In the preamble, Parliament recognizes that the compelled production of personal information in accordance with ordinary disclosure principles may deter victims of sexual offences from reporting and seeking “necessary treatment, counselling, or advice”. It also acknowledges that such unconstrained disclosure may detrimentally affect the work of those who provide services and assistance to complainants of sexual offences [emphasis added]; [para 28]. 

If this truly was Parliament’s intent – and it seems quite reasonable to so conclude – it is unlikely to be furthered by this ruling. Indeed, this ruling is likely to have a chilling effect of reporting. If every complainant knew that everything they tell the police and hand over to the police will thereinafter be provided to every accused person on every cause in which she is a witness or victim, it is not hard to imagine some hesitation or concern may arise.

The 278.1 regime is not overly onerous. It does, however, provide a valuable and important level of protection. That protection should apply to police occurrence reports.

With its ruling today the Court has addressed these concerns. The privacy rights of victims and witnesses sought to be protected by 278.1 has been restored.

DGM

New & Notable: Return of Disclosure

The legal saga of Basi, Virk and Basi continues; in the most recent installment 2011 BCSC 314, 2011 CarswellBC 564, [2011] BCJ No 420, the Crown brought an application for the return of all disclosure as well as application materials filed by the accused in relation to a previous Stinchcombe application.  In short, the Crown argued that all disclosure is provided with an implied undertaking that the material will only be used in the context of the charges from which it was provided and once those charges are completed the disclosure should be returned. 

Aneal Basi was opposed to the application arguing that there is no implied undertaking [para 7].  Dave Basi and Virk accept the implied undertaking but resist the return of the materials [para 8].

In a thorough decision, AW MacKenzie ACJSC first tackled the issue of whether there was an implied undertaking [paras 11-46].   With respect to that issue, MacKenzie ACJSC first recognized that "an accused who receives disclosure material pursuant to the Crown's Stinchcombe obligations, or to a court order, does so subject to an implied undertaking not to disclose its contents for any purpose other than making full answer and defence in the proceeding" [para 42].  On the basis of this undertaking MacKenzie ACJSC agreed with the Crown that since the proceedings are over the accused are not permitted to make any further use of the materials [para 45].

Having found that such an undertaking exists, MacKenzie J considered the impact from the use of these materials on the Stinchcombe application [para 47-64].  In doing so, she rejected the accused argument that the use of these materials in court, the access to them by the media and the reference to them in previous rulings somehow removes this implied undertaking:

...it is, in my opinion, immaterial that some of the Application Materials, or information contained in them, is accessible to the public from other sources. Indeed, Griffin J.'s comments apply more forcefully in the criminal context given the restrictions on the public examination of criminal files. The public availability of documents produced pursuant to Stinchcombe obligations does not of itself displace the limited purpose for which the documents were produced to the defendants [para 63].

Finally MacKenzie ACJSC considered the return of the disclosed materials [para 64-77].  In doing so she considered the issues at which the implied undertaking is aimed: minimization of the intrusion on privacy generated by compelled production and to prohibit improperly motivated proceedings to gain access to materials [para 72] .  Citing the large volume of material and number of third party interests implicated in the matter, Her Honour held that it was within the jurisdiction of the court and consistent with the implied undertaking to order the return of the materials.

 

DG Mack