The defendant, Waqas Qureshi, brought an application for a stay of proceedings under section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, alleging unreasonable delay.
The total delay from charge to anticipated end of trial was 680 days, exceeding the 18-month presumptive ceiling for the Ontario Court of Justice.
The Crown sought to deduct two periods of defence delay: 100 days for a delay in setting a Judicial Pre-Trial (JPT) and 144 days for defence counsel's unavailability for a rescheduled trial date.
The court found the JPT delay was not attributable to the defence due to Crown disclosure issues.
However, the court determined that the 144-day period of defence unavailability was deductible, as the offered trial dates were not "too soon" to allow for preparation.
With this deduction, the net delay was 536 days, falling below the presumptive ceiling of 549 days.
Consequently, the application for a stay of proceedings was dismissed.
