Allyson Ratsoy

The Crown brought an application under s. 653.1 of the Criminal Code to preserve a prior ruling dismissing the accused's s. 11(b) Charter application.

The original judge had recused himself due to a reasonable apprehension of bias arising from his post-decision comments regarding a factual error he made in the ruling.

The court held that s. 653.1 applies purposively to pre-trial rulings even if no formal mistrial was declared.

However, the court found that it was in the interests of justice to allow the accused to relitigate the prejudice aspect of the s. 11(b) application with fresh evidence, while preserving the original judge's findings on the allocation of delay.

Crown appeal against sentence imposed on a long-time cocaine distributor for a criminal organization.

The respondent was sentenced to seven years and 69 days imprisonment following guilty pleas to conspiracy to traffic cocaine, trafficking in cocaine, committing an indictable offence for the benefit of a criminal organization, possession of oxycodone, and multiple breaches of recognizance.

The Crown challenged three aspects of the sentencing: the application of pre-sentence custody credit to the criminal organization offence, the concurrent sentencing of breach and possession offences, and the fitness of the five-year sentence for the trafficking offences.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal while granting leave to appeal.

The appellant appealed his convictions for production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking, arguing the verdicts were unreasonable and based on circumstantial evidence.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding the evidence against the appellant was very strong, including the presence of nearly 3,000 plants on his farm and his truck equipped to water them.

The court also found no error in the trial judge's credibility assessments.