Top Five 2007: R v Teskey

Each year at OJEN’s Toronto Summer Law Institute, a judge from the Court of Appeal for Ontario identifies five cases that are of significance in the educational setting. This summary, based on these comments and observations, is appropriate for discussion and debate in the classroom setting.

R v Teskey, 2007 SCC 25, [2007] 2 SCR 267

A long delay between a verdict and the judge’s reasons for the verdict raised issues about whether the judge engaged in proper legal reasoning and resulted in a new trial. The Supreme Court of Canada held that among other factors, “the court could not reasonably be confident that the written reasons, delivered more than 11 months after the announcement of the verdicts of guilt, reflected the reasoning that led the trial judge to his decision” [para. 23].  Thus, a new trial was ordered.  The full decision is available here.