James Boonstra

The accused were charged with numerous offences related to dog fighting, firearms, and drug trafficking.

They brought a pre-trial application seeking a stay of proceedings, arguing their right to be tried within a reasonable time under s. 11(b) of the Charter was violated.

The total time from charge to the anticipated end of trial was calculated at 30 months and 28 days, exceeding the 30-month presumptive ceiling established in R. v. Jordan.

The court found that the delay was primarily caused by late disclosure and the Crown's ill-advised decision to join a co-accused late in the proceedings.

Finding no exceptional circumstances to justify the delay, the court granted the application and stayed all charges.

The offender was convicted of luring and making sexually explicit material available to a child after communicating with an undercover police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl on Craigslist.

The court sentenced the offender to 18 months' imprisonment and 3 years' probation for the luring offence, finding that the aggravating factors, including the offender's persistence and attendance at a meeting place, warranted a sentence above the mandatory minimum.

The court applied the Kienapple principle to conditionally stay the charge of making sexually explicit material available to a child, finding it was an alternate form of the same criminal harm.

Sentencing decision following convictions on both an adult indictment and a Youth Criminal Justice Act indictment for numerous historical sexual offences against children.

The court applied the Kienapple principle to stay duplicative counts, then imposed a youth sentence focused on accountability, rehabilitation, and reintegration under s. 38 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, while emphasizing denunciation and deterrence on the adult indictment because the offences involved a child victim and breach of trust.

The court treated the absence of intercourse and threats, the offender's lack of record, and collateral consequences as mitigating factors, but found the repeated sexual assaults and resulting harm required substantial custodial terms.

A 12-month youth custodial sentence plus 6 months' supervision was ordered consecutive to a 4-year adult penitentiary sentence, along with multiple ancillary orders.