Under what circumstances will the defence counsel be allowed to attach unsworn letters to an affidavit that express their opinions?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Jones v. Industrial Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (Local 1-3567), 2011 BCSC 926 (CanLII):

There are unsworn letters attached to the affidavits that express the opinions of their authors. Save where they may be admissible as expert opinions they are inadmissible. There are adjectival descriptions by one side of the alleged acts or statements of the other. They are irrelevant. The affidavits should state the facts only, without stooping to add the deponents descriptive opinion of those facts. It should be left to argument to persuade the trier of fact what view he or she should take of them. For counsel to permit affidavits to be larded with adjectives expressing an opinion about the conduct of the other side contributes nothing to the fact finding process. On the contrary, it does a disservice. It exacerbates existing ill feeling, it pads the file with unnecessary material and it wastes the court's time. Creber has been followed on numerous occasions, including in Kennedy v. Kennedy, 2006 BCSC 190.

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