SUPREME
COURT OF CANADA
Between:
Vittorio Thomas Flaviano
Appellant
and
Her Majesty The
Queen
Respondent
Coram: Fish, LeBel, Cromwell, Moldaver,
Karakatsanis and Wagner JJ.
Reasons for
Judgment:
(paras. 1 and 2)
|
Moldaver J. (Fish, LeBel, Cromwell, Karakatsanis and
Wagner JJ. concurring)
|
R. v. Flaviano, 2014 SCC 14, [2014] 1 S.C.R. 270
Vittorio Thomas Flaviano Appellant
v.
Her Majesty The Queen Respondent
Indexed as: R.
v. Flaviano
2014 SCC 14
File No.: 35488.
2014: February
17.
Present: LeBel,
Cromwell, Moldaver, Karakatsanis and Wagner JJ.
on appeal from the court
of appeal for alberta
Criminal
law — Offences — Sexual assault — Mens rea — Consent —Accused charged with
sexual assault — Trial judge acquitting accused on grounds that he may have had
honest but mistaken belief as to complainant’s consent — Court of Appeal
setting aside acquittal and substituting conviction — No air of reality to
defence of mistaken belief in consent — Trial judge erring in finding that
accused took reasonable steps in ascertaining consent of complainant.
Statutes
and Regulations Cited
Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, s. 273.2 (b).
APPEAL
from a judgment of the Alberta Court of Appeal (Martin and Watson JJ.A. and
Sulatycky J. (ad hoc)), 2013 ABCA 219, 553 A.R. 282, 583 W.A.C. 282,
2013 CarswellAlta 990, [2013] A.J. No. 619 (QL), setting aside the accused’s
acquittal on a charge of sexual assault and entering a conviction. Appeal
dismissed.
Alain Hepner, Q.C., for the appellant.
Christine Rideout, for the respondent.
The judgment
of the Court was delivered orally by
[1]
Moldaver J. — We agree with the
conclusion of the Court of Appeal. In particular, taking the record at its
highest for the appellant, there was no evidence that the appellant took any
reasonable steps to ascertain whether the complainant was consenting to sexual
relations following her initial rejection of the appellant’s sexual advances.
With respect, the trial judge erred in law in finding that there was some
evidence that he had taken reasonable steps as required by s. 273.2 (b)
of the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46 .
[2]
Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.
Judgment
accordingly.
Solicitors for the
appellant: Ross, Hepner, Calgary.
Solicitor for the
respondent: Attorney General of Alberta, Calgary.