R. v. Jorgensen, [1995] 4 S.C.R. 55 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

 decision on the knowledge requirement for criminal offences. The Court held that the offence of "knowingly" selling obscene materials requires that the accused be aware that the dominant characteristic of the material was the exploitation of sex and that he knew of the specific acts which made material obscene. Where the accused has a suspicion of the dominant characteristics or specific acts of the material but decided not to make any further inquiries than the accused will be deemed to have known of the material's content. This decision confirms much of what was held in the earlier case of R. v. Sansregret

R. v. Sansregret

Sansregret v. R. [1985] 1 S.C.R. 570 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada case on the requirements and defence for the criminal charge of rape.-Background:...

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Background

Jorgensen was the owner of an adult video store in Ontario. Undercover police officers purchased several videos from his store several of which, despite having been approved by the Ontario censor board, were found to be obscene as they portrayed explicit sex coupled with violence. Jorgensen was charged with "knowingly" selling obscene material "without lawful justification or excuse" contrary to s. 163(2)(a) of the Criminal Code.

At trial he was convicted and the decision was upheld at the Court of Appeal.

Opinion of the Court

The unanimous Court overturned the conviction and granted the appeal. Justice Sopinka, writing for the majority, found that there was no evidence indicating that Jorgensen had any knowledge of the content of the videos beyond the fact that they were sex films and may have been exploitive in nature.