Top court orders new trial
The Canadian Press – May 12, 2024 / 4:00 am | Story: 486806
Photo: The Canadian Press
A man walks past the Supreme Court of Canada, Friday, June 16, 2023 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
The Supreme Court of Canada has ordered a new trial for a francophone man who was not informed of his right to have his Kamloops trial in the official language of his choice.
The top court ruled 5-2 in Franck Yvan Tayo Tompouba’s favour.
Tayo Tompouba appealed his 2020 sexual assault conviction on the basis that his language rights were violated because he was not told his trial could be conducted in French.
The B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the case, so he brought it to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Chief Justice Richard Wagner said in the decision that the appeal court erred in saying it was the accused’s responsibility to prove that his language rights had been violated.
The court quashed his conviction and ordered that a new trial be held in French.
At trial, court heard Tayo Tompouba was living in Williams Lake in 2017 when he met a Kamloops woman on the dating app Tinder.
They went on a date in Kamloops on Sept. 22, 2017, after which she said he raped her.
A date for Tayo Tompouba’s new trial has not yet been set.