R v Jorgensen  R v Jorgensen, [1995] 4 S.C.R. 55 is a Supreme Court of Canada decision on the knowledge requirement for criminal offences. The Court held that the offence of "knowingly" selling obscene materials requires that the accused be aware that the dominant characteristic of the material was the exploitation of sex and that he knew of the specific acts which made material obscene. Where the accused has a suspicion of the dominant characteristics or specific acts of the material but decided not to make any further inquiries than the accused will be deemed to have known of the material's content. This decision confirms much of what was held in the earlier case of "R. v. Sansregret". Jorgensen was the owner of an adult video store in Ontario. Undercover police officers purchased several videos from his store, several of which depicted explicit sexual scenes coupled with violence. All of the videos in question had been approved by the Ontario Film Review Board (OFRB). Nonetheless, Jorgensen was charged with eight counts of "knowingly" selling obscene material "without lawful justification or excuse" contrary to s. 163(2)(a) of the "Criminal Code". The trial judge found three of the videos to be "obscene" under s. 163(8), and the accused was convicted. The decision was upheld at the Ontario Court of Appeal. The Court unanimously overturned the conviction and granted the appeal. Justice Sopinka, writing for the majority, held that to prove the "mens rea" of the offense, "the Crown must prove knowledge on the part of an accused charged with an offence under s. 163(2)(a), not only that he accused was aware that the subject matter had as its dominant characteristic the exploitation of sex but that the accused knew of the presence of the ingredients of the subject matter which as a matter of law rendered the exploitation of sex undue". The court acquitted Jorgensen because there was no evidence indicating that he had any knowledge of the content of the videos beyond the fact that they were sex films and may have been exploitive in nature. Chief Justice Lamer, speaking for himself, agreed with the majority's ruling, but went further to consider the defence of officially induced error. He recognized that although mistake of law is no excuse, the strict application of the doctrine could cause injustice:  After considering a number of academic sources and the developing Canadian jurisprudence, Lamer C.J.C. proposed that officially induced error be recognized in Canada as an excuse, operating similarly to the excuse of entrapment, which if successful would result in a stay of proceedings rather than acquittal.