The Admissibility of Social Media Evidence in Canada Part 2: The Canada Evidence Act

In Part 1 of this column, I reviewed the law concerning the admissibility of social media evidence in Canada at common law. In this second part, I will consider its admissibility pursuant to the Canada Evidence Act. Reprinted in R.S.C. 1985, c. C-5. As noted in Part 1, the issue of authentication of social media evidence has been addressed by Canadian judges through both the common law and the Canada Evidence Act (Act).

In R. v. Hirsch, it was suggested that the provisions in the Canada Evidence Act dealing with the admissibility of social media evidence “is a codification of the common law rule of evidence authentication.” [2017] SKCA 14 at para. 18. This is true, but as will be seen, the statutory provisions are much broader than that, including how an “electronic document” is defined.