What is the test to commit a person for trial?

There is no dispute that the test to be applied before committing a person for trial is whether there is some evidence “upon which a reasonable jury properly instructed could return a verdict of guilty” – see United States of America v. Shephard, 1976 CanLII 8 (SCC), [1977] 2 S.C.R. 1067 at p. 1080. The role of the judge presiding at the preliminary hearing is set out in section 548(1) of the Criminal Code: “When all the evidence has been taken by the justice, he shall (a) if in his opinion there is sufficient evidence to put the accused on trial for the offence charged or any other indictable offence in respect of the same transaction, order the accused to stand trial; or (b) discharge the accused, if in his opinion on the whole of the evidence no sufficient case is made out to put the accused on trial for the offence charged or any other indictable offence in respect of the same transaction.”