The applicant, Marcia Motayne, sought bail pending an application for leave to appeal her fraud conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada.
She was convicted of fraud over $5,000 and sentenced to six years and six months imprisonment, with her appeal to the Court of Appeal for Ontario having been dismissed.
The motion judge dismissed the bail application, finding that while the proposed ground of appeal (jury instruction on motive) was not frivolous, her continued detention was necessary in the public interest.
The court balanced the high enforceability interest of the sentence against the low reviewability interest of the appeal, given the seriousness of the offence and the unlikelihood of leave being granted by the Supreme Court.
