Simon's Legal Resources

Criminal - Jury Charge - Appeals

. R. v. Buoc

In R. v. Buoc (Ont CA, 2026) the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed a criminal appeal, this brought against convictions "by a jury on two counts of second degree murder and one count of attempted murder".

Here the court considered the appellate SOR for jury charge issues:

[31] The first two alleged errors relate to the trial judge’s jury charge. In R. v. Abdullahi, 2023 SCC 19, 483 D.L.R. (4th) 1, the Supreme Court stressed that appellate courts must read jury instructions as a whole, in the context of the entire trial. It is the substance of the charge that matters, not adherence to any prescribed formula or sequence. The trial judge’s charge does not have to be perfect, and the overriding question is whether the jury understood or was “properly equipped” with the law to apply to the evidence: Abdullahi, at para. 36. A properly equipped jury is one that is both (a) accurately and (b) sufficiently instructed. This requires an appellate court to have regard both to what was said and what was not said in the trial judge’s instructions: Abdullahi, at para. 37.