1. R v Lewis, [1979] 2 SCR 821 [Lewis]. There are some offences in theCriminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, with explicit elements that can be described as speaking to the accused’s “motive.” These can include offences that require proof that the accused acted for a particular purpose. For example, the offence of possessing incendiary material for the purpose of committing arson (section 436.1) or inviting a young person to touch their own body or the body of another person for a sexual purpose (section 152) can be said to build an element of motive into the definition of the offence, although it could be argued that “purpose” does not always coincide with motive (for example, the motive for planning the arson may be financial, for revenge, and so on).
2. SeeR v Buzzanga and Durocher, 25 OR (2d) 705.
3. Lewis,supranote 1.
4. InLewis,supranote 1, the accused admitted that he mailed a package containing a bomb to a young couple. The bomb exploded, killing them both. Lewis claimed he was a dupe of the young woman’s father, who objected to her marriage. The Crown tried to show that Lewis benefited financially from his involvement in order to prove that he was aware of what he was mailing.
5. In total, 87 percent of sexual assaults reported to police involved an attacker who was known to the victim. See Cristine Rotenberg, “Police-reported Sexual Assaults in Canada, 2009 to 2014: A Statistical Profile” (3 October 2017),Statistics Canada This figure likely overstates the percentage of stranger sexual assaults because (1) such cases are more likely to be reported to police and (2) it involves victims that are fifteen years of age or older, and child sexual abuse is rarely committed by a stranger.