Court says expanded rape shield laws are constitutional

A person accused in a sexual assault trial does not have the right to ambush their accuser with private records like medical files or personal journals in a bid to discredit them, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday, as it upheld expanded rape shield laws passed by the federal government in 2018.

The decision relates to verdicts by appeals courts from two separate sexual assault cases — one in British Columbia and one in Ontario — both of which had said the changes made to rape shield laws four years ago affected an accused’s right to a fair trial.

In the top court’s 6-3 decision, a majority of justices disagreed, overturned those decisions and upheld the 2018 legislative changes to the Criminal Code as “constitutional in their entirety.”

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees an accused a right to a fair trial, including that they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

It does not, the majority ruling says, “guarantee the most favourable procedures imaginable for the accused.”

The rights of a complainant, and the public, must weigh on the fairness of a trial as well, the court said.

Rape shield laws began appearing in Canada four decades ago to prevent a complainant in a sexual assault case from having evidence of their sexual history used to discredit them.