Section 13: Incriminating Testimony from Another Proceeding

Section 13 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

13. A witness who testifies in any proceedings has the right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence.

R. v. Nedelcu, 2012 SCC 59

The Respondent, Marius Nedelcu, had been convicted of dangerous driving causing bodily harm and impaired driving causing bodily harm after a serious motorcycle accident in which his passenger sustained a brain injury. The matter was the subject of both civil and criminal proceedings, in which Mr. Nedelcu gave inconsistent testimony. In civil examination for discovery, he claimed that he had no memory of the accident. In the criminal trial, he testified in detail and claimed to remember 90 to 95 percent of what happened. The question on appeal was whether the conviction violated Mr. Nedelcu’s right not to have inconsistent incriminating testimony from another proceeding used against him in a criminal proceeding. Continue reading

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