The accused brought a Charter s. 11(b) application seeking a stay of proceedings on the grounds that he was not tried within a reasonable time.
The court applied the framework established in R. v. Jordan, which sets presumptive ceilings of 18 months for Provincial Court and 30 months for Superior Court.
After calculating the overall delay of 40 months and 2 weeks from the charge date to the anticipated completion of trial and sentencing, the court deducted 19 months of defence delay and 7 months of exceptional circumstances (death of accused's father and illness of defence counsel).
The remaining delay of 14 months and 1 week fell below the presumptive ceiling.
The court found the defence failed to demonstrate meaningful steps to expedite proceedings and dismissed the application.