1. These Rules may be cited as the Military Rules of Evidence.

• 2. (1) In these Rules, unless the context otherwise requires,

  “accused”

  “accused” means the accused personally or counsel or a defending officer acting on behalf of the accused, but does not include an adviser acting on behalf of the accused; (accusé ou prévenu)

  “admissible”

  “admissible” means admissible in evidence; (admissible)

  “burden of persuasion”

  “burden of persuasion” means the burden of convincing the court of the existence or non-existence, or probable existence or non-existence, of any fact; (fardeau de la persuasion)

  “business”

  “business” means every kind of business, occupation or calling, and includes the practice of a profession, and the operation of an institute and every kind of institution, whether carried on for profit or not; (entreprise)

  “circumstantial evidence”

  “circumstantial evidence” means evidence tending to establish the existence or non-existence of a fact that is not one of the elements of the offence charged, where the existence or non-existence of that fact reasonably leads to an inference concerning the existence or non-existence of a fact that is one of the elements of the offence charged; (preuve par présomption)

  “confession”

  “confession” means a statement made by an accused person, whether made before or after he is accused of an offence, that is completely or partially self-incriminating with respect to the offence of which he is accused; (aveu)

  “credibility”

  “credibility” means the degree of credit the court should give to the testimony of a witness; (crédibilité)

  “declarant”

  “declarant” means the person who originally makes a hearsay statement; (déclarant)

  “direct evidence”

  “direct evidence” means evidence tending directly to establish the existence or non-existence of an element of the offence charged; (preuve directe)

  “evidence”

  “evidence” means anything that has a significant rational tendency to make something manifest; (preuve)

  “examined copy”

  “examined copy” means a copy proved to have been compared with the original and to correspond to it; (copie conforme)

  “expert witness”

  “expert witness” means a witness qualified under section 81; (témoin expert)

  “extra-judicial statement”

  “extra-judicial statement” means in any proceedings of a court martial a hearsay statement that has been made by a declarant, other than in the course of those proceedings or in the course of taking evidence taken on commission for that court martial, and includes

  • (a) words, oral or written, used by him,

  • (b) the adoption, in some way, in whole or in part, of meaningful words uttered by another person as an accurate expression of the declarant’s own observations or experience, and

  • (c) the expression, in an intelligible manner, of the declarant’s observations or experience; (déclaration extrajudiciaire)

  “judicial notice”

  “judicial notice” means acceptance by a court of the truth of a fact or matter without requiring the introduction of evidence to prove its truth; (connaissance judiciaire)

  “opinion”

  “opinion” means interpretation of, or inference concerning, the significance in some respect of a given fact; (opinion)

  “ordinary witness”

  “ordinary witness” means a witness who testifies to facts observed or experienced by him, but who is not testifying as an expert in the matter concerned; (témoin ordinaire)

  “public document”

  “public document” includes a documentary statement made for an official purpose by a public officer acting under a duty or authority to make the statement; (document public)

  “public officer”

  “public officer” means a person having a legal duty or authority to make official statements which duty or authority is expressly imposed by or given in a statute, regulation or specific instruction, or implied from the nature of the office because he is an official of the Government of Canada, the government of a Canadian province, a Canadian municipality, or because he is a member of the Canadian Forces; (fonctionnaire public)

  “Queen’s Regulations and Orders”

  “Queen’s Regulations and Orders” or “QR&O” means the Queen’s Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Forces; (Ordonnances et Règlements royauxouORFC)

  “real evidence”

  “real evidence” means all evidence supplied by material objects when they are offered for direct perception by the court; (preuve réelle)

  “rebuttable presumption of law”

  “rebuttable presumption of law” means a presumption authorized by the National Defence Act, the Criminal Code or other Act of the Parliament of Canada that upon proof of a certain fact or set of facts, another fact exists, unless evidence to the degree required by law renders its existence unlikely; (présomption réfutable de droit)

  “relevant evidence”

  “relevant evidence” means evidence relating to a fact in issue at the trial, and includes evidence that tends to establish the cogency or accuracy of either direct or circumstantial evidence; (preuve pertinente)

  “reporting witness”

  “reporting witness” means a witness who is permitted to quote an extra-judicial statement; (témoin rapporteur)

  “self-incriminating statement”

  “self-incriminating statement” means a statement by the accused that, if admitted in evidence and believed in whole or in part, would directly or indirectly tend to prove the accused guilty of the charge; (déclaration renfermant une incrimination de soi-même)

  “trial”

  “trial” means trial by court martial. (procès)

• (2) Unless otherwise prescribed, or the context otherwise requires, words and phrases used in these Rules have the same meaning as in the National Defence Act and Queen’s Regulations and Orders.