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Criminal law Self defence Evidence Admissibility Whether the trial judge erred in admitting into evidence the respondent’s statement that he had “shot a few people before when he was living in Yellowknife” Whether the trial judge erred in excluding evidence of the previous violent character of the three deceased and the two injured complainants Whether the guilty verdicts should be maintained by virtue of the curative proviso in s. 686(1)(b)(iii) of the Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C 46.

The respondent was convicted of three counts of second degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. In the early hours of the morning, his home was invaded by several armed individuals. He retreated to the bedroom, and when some of the invaders entered the room, he shot and killed two of them. The respondent subsequently pursued the others, wounding two and killing another. At trial, the judge admitted into evidence a statement made by the respondent according to which he had “shot a few people before when he was living in Yellowknife”, and excluded evidence of serious violent crimes previously committed by the home invaders. The respondent appealed his conviction, arguing that the trial judge had wrongly decided those evidentiary issues. A majority of the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and ordered a new trial. O’Ferrall J.A., dissenting, would have dismissed the appeal on the basis that the impugned evidentiary rulings had little impact on the issues the jury was called to decide, namely whether the respondent believed he could not preserve himself without using the force he used and whether that belief was reasonable in the circumstances.