What is the test for the Charter of Rights to make full answer and defence?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from R. v. Larsen, 2001 BCSC 404 (CanLII):

The right to make full answer and defence is not absolute. It must be applied and made subject to other rules that govern the conduct of a criminal trial. In Dersch v. Canada (Attorney General), 1990 CanLII 3820 (SCC), [1990] 2 S.C.R. 1505, Sopinka J., for the majority, wrote at para. 20: The right to full answer and defence does not imply that an accused can have, under the rubic of the Charter, an overhaul of the whole law of evidence such that a statement inadmissible under, for instance, the hearsay exclusion, would be admissible if it tended to prove his or her innocence.

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