The accused brought a motion seeking a stay of proceedings for alleged breaches of s. 7 of the Charter arising from late disclosure and alleged refusal to provide information relating to a proposed third-party suspect.
The late disclosure involved photographs and notes that had not been transmitted through the police forensic database to the Crown and defence due to an inadvertent failure in the evidence transfer process.
The court held that late disclosure alone does not establish a Charter breach and that the accused must demonstrate prejudice affecting the ability to make full answer and defence.
As no prejudice or abuse of process was proven and the requested investigative material relating to a third party was speculative and unsupported by evidence, the court found no violation of s. 7.
The motion for a stay of proceedings was dismissed.
