Charles Frederick Granek

The Crown applied under section 123 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act for access to youth records of A.B., who was convicted of a gang-related assault in 2007.

The Crown sought to use these records to assist its expert witness in establishing that the accused in a 2010 murder case were associated with gang members who committed gang offences in rival gang territory.

The application was dismissed.

The court found that access to A.B.'s records was not necessary for the proper administration of justice, as the Crown had access to records of adult co-offenders from the same incident.

The temporal remoteness of the 2007 assault to the 2010 murder, combined with minimal evidence of A.B.'s continuing gang involvement or connection to the accused, rendered the records insufficiently probative.

The court also found that A.B.'s privacy interests outweighed the Crown's interest in the records.

This is a decision on committal to trial following a lengthy preliminary inquiry into Project Corral, an investigation by the Integrated Guns and Gangs Task Force into alleged criminal organizations in northwest Toronto.

The Crown sought committal on 71 charges arising from evidence heard at the preliminary inquiry, including charges of trafficking in cocaine, marijuana, firearms and ammunition, conspiracy, counselling, obstruction of justice, and criminal organization offences.

The court analyzed voice identification evidence from intercepted communications, the meaning of coded language used by the accused, and the elements of possession, trafficking, conspiracy, and criminal organization offences.

The court ordered most accused to stand trial on the majority of charges, with some discharges on specific counts.