The Ontario Divisional Court, ruled in Petti v. George Coppel Jewellers Ltd. that polygraph test results are inadmissible as evidence in Ontario civil court proceedings:
Justice Quinn reviewed the law. He said that evidence that a person has offered to submit to polygraph testing can be admissible, but that was a neutral factor here, since both parties had made such an offer. Secondly, the questions and answers from the testing can be admissible, if they constitute admissions against interest. But the test results themselves are not admissible because they usurp the jurisdiction of the trier of fact. As His Honour said, “the court should not delegate its jurisdiction, even on consent”. Hence, a new trial was ordered.
Polygraphy was disallowed in criminal proceedings in a 1987 ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada.
John J. Furedy, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, maintains a site opposed to the polygraph that has links to research articles on the efficacy of polygraph tests.
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