[1] Based on an earlier CBC Radio series of the same name, the films dramatized notable Canadian court cases, with actors reenacting the real-life events of the trial.
[2] The series was produced by George Jonas, with lawyer Edward Greenspan involved in the production as narrator and legal consultant, while episodes were co-written by Jonas with a variety of collaborators and directed by a variety of Canadian filmmakers.
[5] During the case, Stewart claimed that the episode had damaged his reputation in the community where he now lived, as he felt that the episode depicted him as a callous murderer rather than a man who was simply caught up in an accident,[6] while the producers testified that the episode had been Jonas's idea and Greenspan had actually opposed it on the grounds that it would create an appearance of conflict of interest for him, and that he had actually intervened to make the original script more fair to Stewart's perspective once it became clear that Jonas was still going to proceed.
[7] Justice John Macdonald dismissed the suit against the CBC in April 1996 on the grounds that Stewart had failed to show culpability on the network's part.
[11] Cyril Belshaw, whose murder trial was depicted in a 1994 film, also criticized his episode for purportedly not being unequivocal enough about his innocence.