Soon Hyong Kwon has already been tried twice for an alleged sexual assault. After he was acquitted on appeal, Canada’s top court has ordered another new trial.
Brandon Harder
Regina Leader-Post
A man who has twice been tried and convicted of the same sexual assault — and later acquitted — may undergo a third trial for that same charge.
That’s because the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) has ordered another new trial for Soon Hyong Kwon.
Kwon, a Korean man who is a permanent resident of Canada, lived in Grenfell when the 2015 incident was alleged to have occurred. At the time, he operated a bar in the town of around 1,000 residents, located 126 kilometres east of Regina.
In the early hours of March 21 that year, he gave a ride home to a patron — a married woman who was a regular in the establishment. It was alleged he sexually assaulted her on the way to her home, which was out of town.
The woman testified she didn’t remember the sexual encounter, but wouldn’t have consented. He testified she propositioned him, and he questioned her to see if she was agreeing to sex before he proceeded.
The case is one that engages a number of issues, including consent, capacity to consent, and the nuances of navigating a language barrier.
Kwon’s first conviction came in 2018 via a judge of what was then called the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench (now King’s Bench). That conviction was set aside by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, which ordered a new trial. He was convicted again by a judge of the lower court in 2022.
Kwon’s second appeal to Saskatchewan’s highest court resulted in a direct acquittal being substituted for his conviction by a panel of three judges. However, the decision was split, with the dissenting judge asserting that he instead would order a new trial.
The dissenting opinion made way for an appeal to the Supreme Court, which on March 27 also rendered a split decision.
According to that decision, a four-judge majority of the five-judge SCC panel allowed the Crown’s appeal and ordered a new trial — “substantially” for the same reasons previously given by the dissenting judge in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal. One SCC judge would’ve dismissed the Crown’s appeal “substantially for the reasons of the majority in the Court of Appeal.”
Kwon’s new trial has not yet been scheduled.
bharder@postmedia.com
