Kevin J.A. Hunter

The applicant sought a stay of proceedings under sections 11(b) and 24(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, alleging an infringement of the right to a trial within a reasonable time.

The court applied the R. v. Jordan framework, calculating the total delay and subtracting the period attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic as a discrete exceptional circumstance.

The remaining delay fell below the 18-month presumptive ceiling for the Ontario Court of Justice.

Consequently, the court found no infringement of the applicant's Charter rights and dismissed the application for a stay.

The defendant, Jaelen Gonsalves-Borrice, was charged with failing to comply with an emergency order under the Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act for attending an outdoor social gathering during Ontario's "Stay-at-Home" order.

The defendant, self-represented, argued he was out to obtain food, which was an allowed exception.

The court found that the "obtaining food" exception was intended for individual necessity, not group socializing.

The defendant failed to discharge the onus of proving the exception applied, leading to a conviction.

The Crown charged Proformance Group Insurance Solutions Inc. with failing to comply with an Employment Standards Order to pay $4,867.72 in unpaid wages, contrary to section 132 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

The defendant did not appeal or seek judicial review of the Order.

The defendant's director testified that the corporation had ceased operations in May 2016, before the Order was issued in October 2016, and that the corporation lacked financial resources to comply.

The court found that the defendant failed to establish a due diligence defence, as it took no reasonable steps to attempt compliance and made no efforts to obtain financing.

The court convicted the defendant.

The defendant was charged with failing to comply with a Property Standards Order issued by the City of Pickering under the Building Code Act, 1992.

The order required the defendant to remedy violations on his residential property, including removing inoperative vehicles, garbage, and debris from the yard by May 17, 2018.

When the defendant failed to comply, the municipality attended the property with contractors and removed items from the yard.

The defendant challenged the conviction on Charter grounds, arguing violations of sections 7 and 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The court rejected both Charter applications and convicted the defendant.

The defendant was charged with careless driving following a three-vehicle collision on January 26, 2019, on Stevenson Road South in Oshawa.

The defendant's vehicle struck another vehicle from behind, causing a chain-reaction collision.

The defendant claimed brake failure and black ice conditions, but the court found the road was dry and the vehicle had no mechanical defects.

The court found the defendant was either traveling too fast or braked too late, or both, and rejected her due diligence defence.

The defendant was convicted of careless driving.

In a preliminary inquiry, the Crown sought committal of two bar owners for manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death arising from a fatal motor vehicle collision.

The deceased driver, who had consumed alcohol at the defendants' licensed establishment, was found to have a blood alcohol level exceeding 200 milligrams percent at the time of the collision.

The Crown alleged violations of the Ontario Liquor Licence Act constituted unlawful acts supporting manslaughter charges, or alternatively, that the defendants' conduct amounted to criminal negligence.

The court discharged both accused, finding that violations of liquor licensing regulations, while potentially constituting unlawful acts, were not objectively dangerous as required by law, and that the evidence did not establish the marked departure from the standard of care necessary for criminal negligence.