R v Bradshaw
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1365712717746420 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
RvBradshaw: The principled
approach to hearsay revisited
Chris DL Hunt
Thompson Rivers University, Canada
Micah B Rankin
Thompson Rivers University, Canada
Abstract
The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in RvBradshaw marks a major development in the
evolution of Canada’s principled exception to hearsay. In this comment the authors criticise
the court’s new approach to the admissibility of corroborative evidence. They argue that the
test is overly strict and is discordant with the common sense, functional approach previously
endorsed by the court. They also urge caution about combining procedural and substantive
reliability into a third or hybrid approach to threshold reliability.
Keywords
Bradshaw, corroboration, hearsay, necessity, principled approach, reliability, threshold
reliability
The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in RvBradshaw
1
is the latest chapter in the unfolding story of
Canada’s ‘principled exception’ to the hearsay rule. Structured upon the twin analytical pillars of
‘necessity’ and ‘reliabili ty’,
2
the principled exception is arguably one of Canada’s most important
contributions to the law of evidence. The principled exception was recognised over 30 years ago,
3
and
from the outset has proven to be a conceptually unwieldy device. The most controversial aspect of the
exception has been the use of corroborative evidence tendered in support of the ‘reliability’ branch of the
framework (Lacelle, 1999; Paciocco, 2004; Stuesser, 2001: 68–75; Tanovich, 2003: 401–2). Although
many observers had assumed that the debates surrounding the use of corroborative evidence were settled
Corresponding author:
Micah B Rankin, Thompson Rivers University, Faculty of Law, Kamloops, British Columbia V2C 0C8, Canada.
E-mail: mrankin@tru.ca; chunt@tru.ca
1. RvBradshaw, 2017 SCC 35.
2. For a recent discussions of the principled exception to hearsay, see: RvKhelawon, 2006 SCC 57; RvBaldree, 2013 SCC 35.
3. Most observers trace the origins of the principled exception to RvKhan, [1990] 2 SCR 531.
The International Journalof
Evidence & Proof
2018, Vol. 22(1) 68–78
ªThe Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/1365712717746420
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