Court makes it ‘clear that Crowns cannot buttress their own witnesses’ through oath-helping: counsel

By Amanda Jerome (December 12, 2022, 12:56 PM EST) -- A new trial has been ordered for a man convicted of sexual assault due to the “trial judge’s failure to give the jury a limiting instruction regarding the use of significant evidence tendered at trial of the appellant’s prior discreditable conduct,” the Court of Appeal for Ontario has ruled. Although the appeal was allowed on this ground alone, the court also found that “Crown counsel’s examination-in-chief of the complainant constituted oath-helping” and was on “the wrong side of the line.”   ...