David Littlefield

Crown appeal of a stay of proceedings granted by the trial judge for unreasonable delay under the Jordan framework.

The trial judge found net delay of approximately 32 months after accounting for 56 days of defence delay.

The Court of Appeal identified three fundamental errors in the trial judge's calculation of defence delay: failure to account for 87 days of defence delay in scheduling the preliminary inquiry, failure to account for 84 days of defence delay following a co-accused's adjournment request, and misapprehension of evidence regarding approximately 3.5 months of defence delay related to outstanding discovery.

The Court held that any one of these errors brought the delay under the Jordan ceiling, and cumulatively they brought it well below.

The appeal was allowed, the stay was lifted, and the matter was remitted for trial.

Crown's appeal of the acquittal of the respondent on charges of conspiracy to import a narcotic and importing a controlled substance (cocaine).

The respondent was jointly tried with a co-accused who was convicted of the conspiracy count.

The Crown raised two issues on appeal: whether the trial judge wrongly excluded evidence tying the respondent to the conspiracy, and whether the trial judge erred by imposing a reasonable doubt standard at step two of the Carter test for conspiracy membership.

The appellate court dismissed the Crown's appeal, finding no error in the trial judge's evidentiary rulings or jury instructions.

Appeal from conviction and sentence for conspiracy to import a narcotic.

The appellant was convicted of conspiring to import cocaine from St. Maarten to Montreal.

The appeal raised three grounds: whether the verdict was unreasonable, whether the jury charge was inadequate, and whether the trial judge erred in dismissing a Charter s. 11(b) application regarding delay.

The court dismissed all grounds of appeal, finding the evidence supported the conviction, the jury instructions were adequate, and the delay was justified under both the Jordan framework and transitional exceptional circumstances.

The sentence of nine years was upheld as fit.