Highlights from the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada in Criminal Matters in 2019

In 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a number of decisions involving criminal law issues. In this edition’s column, I intend to highlight a number of the most significant decisions rendered by the Court in 2019 (up to October 31). These decisions involved the following issues: •the authority of Canadian police to detain and arrest; •the questioning of sexual offence complainants on their prior sexual activity; and •the importance of respecting victims in the trial process by refraining from pejorative and demeaning language. Let us start with the Supreme Court’s decisions on the admissibility of prior sexual activity of complainants in sexual offence trials.