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Statutory Interpretation - "Grossly". R. v. Eldon
In R. v. Eldon (Ont CA, 2025) the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed a criminal Crown appeal on SOIRA issues.
Here the court considers the term: "grossly":[63] Third, to avoid the mandatory SOIRA order, the respondent had to show that the order would not only be disproportionate to the public interest in his inclusion in the registry, but that it would be “grossly disproportionate” to that interest. “Grossly” signifies more than a minor imbalance. It means “plainly, obviously, excessively, to a startling degree, flagrantly or glaringly” disproportionate: Debidin, at para. 62.
[64] In the DNA databank context, where the term “grossly disproportionate” is also used, it has been interpreted to mean “clearly and substantially”: R. v. R.C., 2005 SCC 61, [2005] 3 S.C.R. 99, at para. 31.[5] Applying that interpretation in this context, it would mean that the accused must establish that “the public interest in protecting society through the effective prevention or investigation of crimes of a sexual nature, to be achieved by the registration of information relating to sex offenders under that Act” is clearly and substantially inferior to “the impact of the order on the person, including on their privacy or liberty”.
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