RIGHTS OF ACCUSED — To trial in either official language

Law360 Canada (May 3, 2024, 12:15 PM EDT) -- Appeal by Appellant from a judgment of the British Columbia Court of Appeal which upheld his conviction for sexual assault. The Appellant was a bilingual Francophone. Following a trial conducted in English, he was found guilty of sexual assault. The Appellant appealed on the ground, among others, that the failure of the provincial court judicial officers to inform him of his right to be tried in French violated his language rights. He argued that he was entitled to a new trial conducted in French. The Court of Appeal determined that the judicial officer before whom the Appellant first appeared failed to meet the requirements of s. 530(3) of the Criminal Code (Code). However, the record did not show that the Appellant’s substantive right to be tried in his official language of choice had been violated. The Court of Appeal therefore applied one of the curative provisos in s. 686(1)(b) of the Code....