Eric George Costaris

The applicants sought a stay of proceedings under s. 24(1) of the Charter, alleging a breach of their s. 11(b) right to be tried within a reasonable time.

The court found the total delay exceeded the 18-month presumptive ceiling for provincial court matters.

The Crown failed to rebut the presumption of unreasonableness by establishing exceptional circumstances, as the delay was primarily due to the Crown's failure to properly assess and streamline the co-accused prosecution, rather than case complexity or the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consequently, all charges against the applicants were stayed.

The applicant, K.K., charged with historical sexual assault, sought an order for the production of the complainant T.V.'s counselling records from Steven Kerr, pursuant to sections 278.5 and 278.7 of the Criminal Code.

The application was based on the complainant's admitted uncertainty regarding the details of the alleged assaults and the temporal connection between counselling and reporting to police, arguing that the records were likely to be relevant to her reliability and credibility.

The court conducted a two-stage analysis, first finding that the applicant had met the threshold for judicial review of the records.

However, after reviewing the notes, the court found them to be brief summaries lacking specific details of the allegations and consistent with the complainant's preliminary hearing evidence.

The court concluded that releasing the material would not assist the applicant's right to make full answer and defence and would only serve to discourage victims from seeking counselling.

The application was dismissed.

The offender pleaded guilty to twelve counts of making child pornography, two counts of possessing child pornography, one count of making available child pornography, three counts of sexual interference, and one count of sexual assault.

The offender sexually assaulted three male children, including two brothers, and possessed thousands of child pornography images and videos.

The court imposed a global sentence of nine years, with credit for eighteen months of presentence custody, resulting in seven and a half years remaining to be served.

Ancillary orders included lifetime SOIRA registration, section 161 order, DNA order, section 109 order, section 164.2 forfeiture order, and section 743.21 order, along with a mandatory victim surcharge of $3,800.