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The Supreme Court of Canada has reinstated a woman’s conviction for trying to kill her mother by injecting her with insulin.
In its decision, released Friday, the high court rejected the argument that the jury in the woman’s trial should have been instructed on the distinction between attempted murder and aiding suicide.
In June 2019, a neighbor found the woman, a nurse identified only as BF due to a publication ban, her mother, and BF’s 19-month-old daughter unconscious in their home. All three had been injected with insulin.
First responders discovered five empty insulin pens at the scene, along with a handwritten note.
The boy suffered serious injuries
BF and his mother made a full recovery. The child suffered serious injuries.
At BF’s trial, the Crown argued that an ongoing child custody dispute gave the woman a motive for the offences.
The defense suggested that BF’s mother could have injected herself, her daughter and her grandson with insulin.
A jury found BF guilty of attempting to murder his mother and daughter.
The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed BF’s challenge to his conviction for attempting to kill his son, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday.
The provincial Court of Appeal allowed BF’s appeal over the attempted murder of his mother and ordered a new trial on the charge. He suggested that BF could have given insulin to his mother, who could then have injected herself in a suicide attempt.
Jury equipped to decide guilt: court
In its decision, the Supreme Court said BF’s conviction for the attempted murder of his mother should be reinstated because the jury was properly equipped to decide his guilt.
Because BF was not charged with assisting suicide and is not included in the attempted murder offense in this case, the jury did not need to consider whether she was guilty of this offense, Judge Michelle O’Bonsawin wrote for the majority.
Judge O’Bonsawin also said there was “no air of reality” in a scenario in which BF helped his mother self-administer insulin with the intention of ending her own life.
Therefore, the trial judge was right not to address this scenario in his instructions, he added.
“The question of the legal relationship between attempted murder and aiding suicide has no bearing on the appeals,” he wrote.
