The Court in R. v. Dineley, 2009 ONCA 814 today held the amendments to s. 258(1) of the Criminal Code operate retrospectively.
The Court held:
[27] I acknowledge that in support of his argument that Bill C-2 applies prospectively to offences committed on or after July 2, 2008, the respondent relies on Angus v. Sun Alliance Insurance Co., [1988] 2 S.C.R. 256 and R. v. Boucher, [2005] 3 S.C.R. 499. In both cases, when considering the temporal operation of legislation, the Supreme Court of Canada commented on legislation that has the effect of altering the content of an existing common law defence: see Angus at para. 21 and Boucher at para. 22. In my opinion, however, read in their entirety, neither case stands for the proposition that legislation which merely alters the evidentiary content of a defence, rather than removing or eliminating an existing defence, compels a prospective application
James Morton
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