Recent developments in Canadian criminal law

This year's review canvasses and analyses a number of substantive, penal, procedural, and evidentiary developments in Canadian criminal law. Substantive law and penal topics to be discussed include recent jurisprudence concerning the extent, if any, to which inchoate offences can be combined; the interpretation of the offence of obstruction of justice in the context of a police officer's exercise of his or her discretion not to charge a suspect; the extent to which there is or should be a defence of innocent possession; whether "sexsomnia" should be classified as sane or insane automatism; and the unfortunate proliferation of minimum sentences in recent years. Procedural and evidentiary topics considered include the continuing evolution of common law police powers in the context of search and seizure; developments in the right to silence; recent discussions of the reliability of expert opinion evidence; and the Supreme Court's latest word on the Canadian approach to corroboration.