A jury fell for the Crown prosecutor's sneaky moves and convicted a man even though the complainant had been proven a liar at trial. The judge was apparently powerless to direct an acquittal verdict on any of the counts and didn't let her position be known until sentencing day. 

• Original YouTube video

Feminist prosecutors go before the Supreme Court of Canada to ask them to consider strengthening 'rape shield' laws by weighing the constitutional rights of the innocent accused against the rights of alleged sex crime victims. Effectively insisting that the rights of alleged victims to not be caught in a lie should outweigh a man's right to freedom from wrongful imprisonment.

• Original YouTube video

Balancing the scales of credibility. Both the accused and the complainant admitted to consensual heavy petting while on a cot, high on drugs inside of a tent after having met at an outdoor music festival. The woman claimed she said 'no' to penetration, but that he did not stop. He denied he ever penetrated. 

• Original YouTube video

Consistency of a claim does not equal corroboration of a claim. A photographer was accused of sexual assaulting a young woman after engaging in a model shoot at his condo/studio after meeting on a social networking app. 

• Original YouTube video

A man was accused of historical sexual abuse against a child while he was a minor and was tried in a youth court as a result. The complainant was an adult at the time of the complaint and her evidence mainly relied on the inference that she had a bed wetting problem as a result of ongoing sexual abuse. It was a judge-only trial. 

• Original YouTube video

Time to revisit the standard of proof. An important new decision that came out of the Alberta Court of Appeals (R v Ryon, 2019 ABCA 36) can not only reduce wrongful convictions, but it can also free some of the wrongly convicted and jailed (if defence and appeal attorneys know about it). As a non-lawyer I try to break it down for you. 

• Original YouTube video