Anna Taghavian

The appellant pled guilty to ten offences, including assault and harassment, against his wife and her brother.

He appealed his suspended sentence, arguing the sentencing judge erred by failing to consider the immigration consequences of a conviction instead of a conditional discharge.

The Superior Court of Justice dismissed the appeal, finding the sentencing judge was fully aware of the potential for deportation and correctly concluded that a conditional discharge would be contrary to the public interest given the ongoing intimate partner violence.

The accused sought a stay of proceedings under s. 11(b) of the Charter in a summary conviction intimate partner violence prosecution, arguing that delayed disclosure and the complainant's non-attendance at the second trial caused unconstitutional delay.

Applying the Jordan framework, the court deducted formal waivers and multiple periods of defence-caused delay arising from disclosure inaction, failure to conduct pretrials, unavailability for earlier trial dates, and an adjournment of the first trial requested by the defence.

The court held that the resulting net delay was 546 days, or 17.9 months, below the 18-month presumptive ceiling.

Although the court rejected the Crown's submission that the witness's unexplained non-attendance constituted a discrete exceptional circumstance, it concluded the accused had not established a basis for a subceiling stay.