When will a defence of self-defence be admissible?

Mr. Justice Kovacs in the unreported decision of Regina v. Steven Fedchyshak (St. Catherines: May 7th, 1982) has articulated that principle as follows at page 11: It is a policy of our criminal law that evidence of the accused’s character is not admissible unless he leads evidence of good character. I do not accept the view that the accused, by bringing into issue the victim’s character for violence, impliedly puts his own character into issue. A defence of self-defence, simpliciter, is related to a single act of the accused at a single time. The accused brings into issue, by a plea of self-defence, only his acts at the specific time of the alleged crime. By pleading self-defence an accused does not thereby represent himself as a man of peaceable disposition in the community. Such a finding would virtually preclude an accused with a reputation of violence in the community from ever being able to plead self-defence. In fact, a violently disposed man may be in a position of having to defend himself against an aggressor and properly ought to raise the plea without subjecting his general character for violence to attack and rendering his defence virtually meaningless.