Jason Dos Santos

The accused was charged with operating a motor vehicle with more than 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood contrary to section 253(b) of the Criminal Code.

The defence sought to exclude breath readings obtained by police on the grounds of Charter breaches relating to the "forthwith" requirement under section 254(2) of the Criminal Code and alleged violations of the right to counsel under section 10(b) of the Charter, claiming language difficulties prevented meaningful comprehension.

The court found that the "forthwith" requirement was met, that no special circumstances existed requiring additional steps to ensure comprehension of rights, and that the accused understood his rights and waived his right to counsel.

The breath readings were admitted and the accused was found guilty.

The accused brought a motion for a stay of proceedings under section 24(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, alleging a breach of his right to trial within a reasonable time under section 11(b).

The accused was charged with falsely representing himself to be a peace officer on October 12, 2010.

The information was sworn on November 12, 2010, and the trial was scheduled to proceed on March 27, 2012, representing an overall delay of sixteen months.

The court applied the framework established in R. v. Morin and subsequent jurisprudence, including R. v. Lahiry, to calculate the delay.

The court found that the total period of unjustified delay was five and a half months, consisting of four and a half months of institutional delay and one month of Crown delay, which fell well within the eight to ten month guidelines for the Ontario Court of Justice.

The court found no significant prejudice to the accused and concluded that the societal interest in hearing the matter on the merits outweighed any prejudice suffered.

The motion was dismissed.