The defendant, charged with aggravated assault, sought a stay of proceedings due to unreasonable delay under section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The total delay exceeded the 18-month presumptive ceiling established in R. v. Jordan.
The Crown argued that the COVID-19 pandemic constituted an exceptional circumstance, justifying the subtraction of a period of delay.
However, the court found that the primary cause of the delay was the state's failure to provide timely and complete disclosure, not the pandemic.
Following the principles from R. v. Silva and R. v. Ravikumaran, the court determined that the Crown failed to demonstrate that the delay was caused by COVID-19 or that it took reasonable steps to mitigate the disclosure issues.
Consequently, the court refused to subtract the pandemic period from the delay calculation and stayed the proceedings.