Supreme Court clarifies sexual assault law in case spotlighting justice system’s mistreatment of Indigenous women and sex workers – The Lawyer’s Daily

May 24, 2019

In a much anticipated ruling that addresses jury charges, consent, the use of the rape shield and a host of other fraught issues in the law and prosecution of sexual assault, the Supreme Court of Canada has 4-3 allowed, in part, the appeal of Bradley Barton from an Alberta Court of Appeal ruling that ruled in 2017, after his acquittal by a jury, that Barton must face a new trial on murder and manslaughter in the 2011 death of Cindy Gladue following their sexual encounters.

The top court’s four-judge majority, led by Justice Michael Moldaver, ruled that Barton can be retried only for unlawful act manslaughter — not first-degree murder — since the Crown’s theory on the latter offence “simply did not hold up under scrutiny”: R. v. Barton 2019 SCC 33.

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