The Crown brought an application to halt a preliminary inquiry in light of recent amendments to the Criminal Code that came into effect on September 19, 2019, which restricted preliminary inquiries to offences punishable by 14 years' imprisonment or more.
The Crown argued the amendments were retrospective in effect and applied to all preliminary hearings scheduled after September 19, 2019.
The respondent argued the amendments were prospective and only applied to matters where no prior election had been made.
The court found that the determination of whether legislation is prospective or retrospective is a matter of law and that it was bound by the decision in R v. R.S., which held the amendments were retrospective.
The court accordingly found it had no jurisdiction to hold the preliminary hearing and directed the respondent to make a new election under the amended legislation.
