Canada’s Supreme Court has upheld an order for new trials on sexual-services offences after finding that two defendants were wrongly prevented from questioning a complainant about the commercial aspects of her earlier sex work.
The unanimous October 16 ruling in R. v. A.M. dismissed the Crown’s appeal. It leaves the Ontario Court of Appeal’s retrial order in place, rather than entering fresh acquittals on those charges.
Justice Mary Moreau explained that Criminal Code section 276 does not categorically apply to sexual-services and human-trafficking offences. The provision restricts sexual-history evidence to prevent reasoning that a complainant’s past makes consent more likely or her account less credible.
The proposed questions here concerned financial and advertising arrangements. They were offered to challenge the allegation that the defendants had recruited or exploited the complainant, not simply to invoke her sexual history.
The decision does not make all such evidence admissible. The defendants had already been acquitted of human trafficking; the new trials concern the sexual-services convictions. The case is subject to a publication ban.
Official court summary and judgment links, 2026 SCC 33.
