Getting Away From the “Representative Sample”: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Presenting Unlawful Pornography in Court
Exposure to unlawful forms of pornography, such as child pornography, can be traumatizing. R. v. Shaw , 2018 ONCJ 61 (CanLII). On most occasions, it is unnecessary for the judge to view the child pornography that comprises the subject matter of a charge or even for the Crown to select a representative sample of images from the child pornography collection to show at the sentencing hearing. Defence and Crown counsel should do their best to agree to a mutually satisfactory verbal description of the contents of child pornography so as to protect courtroom participants (including themselves, the judge, and victims) from unnecessary exposure to potentially trauma-inducing raw material.[FN] R. v. Marratt , 2019 ONCJ 618 , per Band J; See also R. v. Shaw , 2018 ONCJ 61 , per Band J. This can even be taken a step farther. In the appropriate case, once the parties have agreed to present the evidence in a summarized verbal form, they should be canvassed as...