Canada Day at the Lake

On Canada Day 2022 two groups celebrating on a lakeside beach fell into conflict. One participant kicked sand at the other group, then pulled out a gun, pointed it, and fired, striking a man from the other group in the leg. That a shooting happened was not disputed. The only issue at trial was who did it. The key witness had known the Accused for more than thirty years and had approached him and spoken with him earlier the same day. She did not, however, give any evidence describing what he was physically wearing or how he looked at the moment of the shooting. The Accused argued that the case rested entirely on eyewitness identification of the kind courts are repeatedly warned about, and that the absence of any contemporaneous description of the shooter made the case against him unsafe.