1. To force (a person) to do something; drive or constrain: The court compelled the company to pay full restitution. My conscience compels me to speak out. See Synonyms at force.
2. To necessitate or require, as by force of circumstance; demand: Growing riots compelled the evacuation of the embassy.
3. To exert a strong, irresistible force on; sway: "The land, in a certain, very real way, compels the minds of the people"(Barry Lopez).
[Middle English compellen, from Latin compellere : com-, com- + pellere, to drive; see pel- in Indo-European roots.]
In 1976, the Code was amended for the first time to include a provision potentially preventing the use of sexual history evidence with persons other than the accused, unless the judge was "satisfied that the weight of the evidence is such that to exclude it would prevent the making of a just determination of an issue of fact in the proceedings, including the credibility of the complainant." (48) Unfortunately, this provision did not have any material effect on cross-examination as the complainant was a compellable witness at the voir dire and judges tended to exercise their discretion by applying the same principles that had led to reliance on this evidence in the past.
He added that the Act provides that: 'No person shall be compellable to do any act on a day appointed by or under the provisions of this Act to be kept as a public holiday which he would not be compellable to do on a Sunday.'
S 13 protects the right of a "witness who testifies in any proceedings" to not "have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence." This provision prevents the Crown from adducing testimony given by defendants in previous proceedings when they were compellable witnesses, if that testimony would incriminate them at their own trial.
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