Where the Witness Recants the Agreed Statement of Facts


As made clear by the Supreme Court in Youvarajah, 2013 SCC 41 (CanLII), [2013] 2 S.C.R. 720, at paras. 26-30,  the admission of agreed statements of fact for their truth should be consistent with the court’s earlier decisions in K.G.B. and R. v. Khelawon, 2006 SCC 57 (CanLII), [2006] 2 S.C.R. 787. 

That is, when a witness recants, the agreed statement of facts may be admissible for its truth as an out-of-court prior inconsistent statement if threshold reliability can be established by “the presence of adequate substitutes for testing truth and accuracy (procedural reliability)”: Youvarajah, at para. 30.

R. v. Alexander, 2015 ONCA 167 (CanLII), at para. 17.

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