What are the consequences of recklessness and wilful blindness?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from R. v. Vye, 2014 BCSC 918 (CanLII):
The concepts of recklessness and wilful blindness were explained in the reasons for judgment of Mr. Justice McIntyre for a unanimous Court in Sansregret v. The Queen, 1985 CanLII 79 (SCC), [1985] 1 S.C.R. 570 at 584. Recklessness involves “knowledge of a danger or risk and persistence in a course of conduct which creates a risk that the prohibited result will occur.” Wilful blindness arises “where a person who has become aware of the need for some inquiry declines to make the inquiry because he does not wish to know the truth.” The culpability in recklessness is in “consciousness of the risk and by proceeding in the face of it.” The culpability in wilful blindness is in “deliberately failing to inquire when he knows there is reason for inquiry.” III
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