Forensic Applications of Criminal Law 1: Legal Procedures FSCT 7001

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Outline the initial stages of a criminal prosecution, including how a complaint comes to be investigated, the Crown counsel charge assessment standard and Crown discretion in determining what, if any, charges are prosecuted, and the essential differences between the roles of investigators and prosecutors.
• Analyze criminal trial situations according to the fundamental legal principles in Canada, including the presumption of innocence, right to silence, and the necessity of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
• Explain the roles of independent arbiter, Crown counsel, and defence counsel in a criminal proceeding.
• Discuss applications of the law regarding police powers of arrest.
• Differentiate between summary and indictable offences in the Criminal Code.
• Discuss the modes of trial available to an accused person, depending on the type of offence they are facing.
• Discriminate between the Criminal Code sections and the common law in terms of compelling the attendance of an accused person to court.
• Outline the law of Judicial Interim Release (bail) with particular regard to the legal principles and practical aspects pre-trial release; the role the investigation of the offence plays in judicial interim release proceedings; and the inter-relationship between the result of a bail hearing (detention or release) and the timing and object of any ongoing investigation.
• Describe procedural aspects related to the preliminary inquiry, the purpose or goal of a preliminary inquiry from both Crown and defence perspectives, and the impact on witnesses, including forensic professionals.
• Describe the traditional disadvantages that Indigenous people have experienced within the justice system and explain how the law has developed to attempt to address the inequity.
• Describe each procedural element of a criminal trial (jury trials and judge-alone trials) from the opening statement through to verdict and sentencing.
• Explain various perspectives of the Canadian criminal justice system (other than those of counsel for the Crown and defence) and why the honesty and good faith of the investigators and consequent integrity of the criminal investigation is crucial to our system.
• Analyze trial strategies and tactics used by both Crown and defence counsel.
• Explain the law of disclosure and the corresponding duty of the Crown counsel and professional witnesses to make available to the defence everything created or gathered in the course of an investigation, the so-called “fruits of the investigation.”

Effective as of Winter 2024