Evidence Law

R v Elliott: An Unhinged Use of Hashtags

In R v Elliott, 2016 ONCJ 35 [Elliott], Gregory Elliott was found not guilty of criminally harassing two women by repeatedly communicating with them via Twitter through various hashtags they had created. In my view, Mr. Elliott fulfills the definition of a “Twitter troll” and I find his opinions personally offensive. But is the fact […]

Revisiting Expert Evidence: The New Test for Bias in Burgess

In White Burgess Langille Inman v Abbott and Haliburton Co, 2015 SCC 23 [Burgess], the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) established a test for assessing the impartiality of expert witnesses. The issue arose when shareholders of a company obtained a new accounting firm, Grant Thornton LLP, which discovered errors in the previous auditors’ work. The shareholders […]