R v Bulldog (ABCA): Admissibility of video recordings
CCTV camera In R v Bulldog, 2015 ABCA 251, the Alberta Court of Appeal provided useful guidance on the evidence necessary to introduce video recordings at trial. The court's reasoning can likely be applied to other pieces of demonstrative evidence, such as audio recordings and photographs. The case concerned an inmate-on-inmate assault which had occurred in an Edmonton correctional institution. More than one copy of a video recording of the from a CCTV system in the institution had been made. The precise path by which the recording tendered by the Crown in court had been made was unclear to any witness who testified. The Crown did, however, call a witness who had seen the footage at an earlier time and testified that the recording was consistent with what they had earlier viewed. Other witnesses described the assault and their evidence provided details which were consistent with the recording that was tendered (though these eyewitness had not been shown the video). On the appeal, defence counsel argued, based upon R v Nikolovski, 1996 CanLII 158 (SCC), that the recording had not been sufficiently "authenticated". They submitted [...]