Entrapment: Opportunity to Commit a Crime
The entrapment defence is available when either: 1) “the authorities provide a person with an opportunity to commit an offence without acting on a reasonable suspicion that this person is already engaged in criminal activity or pursuant to a bona fide inquiry”; or 2) “although having such a reasonable suspicion or acting in the course of a bona fide inquiry, they go beyond providing an opportunity and induce the commission of an offence.” R. v. Mack , 1988 CanLII 24 (SCC), at pp. 964-65 The accused must establish the entrapment defence on a balance of probabilities. Mack , at p. 975. Whatever the mode of trial, the judge ought to consider entrapment only after a finding of guilt. R. v. Imoro , 2010 ONCA 122, at para. 24. In considering entrapment, the court looks at the actions of the police, not of the accused. O ne must guard against allowing the nature of the offence to distort the application of the entrapment doctrine. Its application does not de...