What are the grounds of appeal for the mistake defence?

Alberta, Canada


The following excerpt is from R. v. MacDougall, 2002 ABQB 1080 (CanLII):

The second ground of appeal is that the judge misapprehended the mistake defence, as without a finding about the conversation, he could not turn his mind to what she subjectively understood from the situation. Defence counsel argues that the case of Pappajohn v. The Queen 1980 CanLII 13 (SCC), 52 C.C.C. (2d) 481 requires that once there is evidence of some basis upon which a defence can rest, that an honest and mistaken belief may be a defence and the belief is not required to be based on reasonable grounds. The concern raised is that the trial judge was setting an objective standard, and said words to the effect that it was not reasonable for the accused to draw the conclusion she had a choice. It is argued that in articulating that, the trial judge failed to look at the subjective understanding of the accused.

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