1996 Ottawa ON Civil Section Documents - Electronic Evidence Hamish Stewart

The nature and quality of the evidence put before the Court has to reflect the facts of the complete record keeping process -- in the case of computer records, the procedures and processes relating to the input of entries, storage of information, and its retrieval and presentation ... [...] How does the print-out of the optical scan of the print-out of the magnetic memory of the bar-coded numbers fit into this scheme? [14] The theory of McMullen is that the original computer memory in which the information about the bar codes was stored is the "record", and the definition of "record" in s. [...] 29 The focus of authentication of a computer- generated document is not only on the provenance of the piece of paper itself, but on the security, reliability, and accuracy of the system that placed the marks on the piece of paper. [...] For a computer-generated document, the issue is not whether the piece of paper (or other form of information) is an "original" or is a "copy" of an original; the issue is whether the information on the piece of paper accurately reflects the intentions of the persons who use the computer system that generated it.35 Therefore, the focus of admissibility for a computer-generated document should be on. [...] Footnote: 16In the same vein, the Court seemed impressed by the fact that the print-out was "the only source of reference available to the bank as to the state of the bank account, saving the possibility of compiling a new statement by seeking out the original deposit slips, cheques, etc."; similarly, the Court was unconcerned by the fact that there was no direct proof of how some other bank state.