Summary

Keywords

Canadian charter (Criminal) - Constitutional law - Constitutional law - Charter of Rights - Right to be tried within a reasonable time - Whether judicial delay is part of the total delay calculation to be assessed in the context of the analytical framework of presumptive ceilings established in R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27, [2016] 1 S.C.R. 631.

Summary

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(PUBLICATION BAN IN CASE)

After a trial by judge alone, the appellant was convicted of sexual interference and invitation to sexual touching in relation to complaints made by his step-daughter. A day before the verdict was delivered, he brought a motion to stay the proceedings on the basis of delay. Specifically, he argued that the time taken by the judge (around 9 months) to render his decision should be considered in the calculation of overall delay. The stay was refused on the basis that decision-making time does not fall under the Jordan framework. The motion judge held that, pursuant to R. v. Rahey, [1987] 1 S.C.R. 588, the appropriate test to determine whether a judge’s decision-making time breaches s. 11(b) of the Charter is whether, in the context of the case, the time taken is “shocking, inordinate and unconscionable”. In the circumstances, while the time was comparatively long, it did not meet that threshold. A majority of the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal. Hamilton J.A., dissenting, would have allowed the appeal and stayed the proceedings.