Le témoin pouvant attester de l'authenticité d'une photographie ou d'un vidéo

R. v. Doughty, 2009 ABPC 8 (CanLII)

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[37]           Goldstein categorizes an authenticating witness as coming from one of the following classes:

The authenticating witness can be:

1.         the camera operator,

2.         a person present at the scene when the photograph, motion picture film or videotape was recorded,

3.         a person qualified to state that the representation is accurate, or,

4.         an expert witness.

Witnesses in categories one and two, who see the event as it is being photographed, are eye-witnesses. An eye-witness testifies to two things: (a) what he saw, from memory, and (b) whether what he sees in a courtroom in the photograph, is the same as what his memory tells him he saw at the scene.

Witnesses in categories three and four are not eye-witnesses, but can still authenticate a photograph either because of their familiarity with its subject matter or their knowledge of the operation of the equipment that produced it.

The question of who is called to authenticate a videotape goes to the issue of its weight, not admissibility. The accuracy and fairness of the visual evidence can be proved by anyone who is able to attest to those qualities. “Calling the photographer and processor goes to the weight and not the admissibility of photographs”.