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Witnesses, even complainants in sexual assault cases, have no new right to review judges’ decisions in mid-trial despite recent amendments to the “rape shield” provisions of the Criminal Code.

So says the Ontario Criminal Lawyers Association (CLA), which is seeking intervener status in an unusual and controversial application to be heard in Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa on Wednesday.

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Caitlan Coleman, the estranged wife and co-hostage of former Afghan hostage Joshua Boyle, is appealing a ruling made last month by a lower-court judge, Ontario Court Judge Peter Doody.

At the time, the cross-examination of the 33-year-old was about to resume.

But under Section 276 of the Criminal Code, the rape shield section designed to protect sexual assault complainants from invasive questioning, Boyle’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon was required first to make an application showing that the evidence he wanted to elicit didn’t invoke the stereotypical “twin myths,” the inference that a sexual assault complainant is more likely to have consented or is less worthy of belief because of her previous sexual history.