The applicant, Noah Hart, brought an application for a stay of proceedings under s. 24(1) of the Charter, alleging a violation of his s. 11(b) right to a trial without unreasonable delay.
The total delay was 22 months and 21 days, exceeding the 18-month presumptive ceiling for the Ontario Court of Justice established by R. v. Jordan.
The court analyzed periods of delay, particularly focusing on the time taken for Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) to process the applicant's certificate.
The court found that the LAO processing time, with the Crown's reasonable mitigation efforts, constituted an exceptional circumstance.
Additionally, the court noted defence delay due to the failure to proactively raise delay concerns.
After deductions for defence delay and exceptional circumstances, the net delay was calculated to be 15 months and 1 week (464 days), which fell below the Jordan threshold.
The s. 11(b) application was dismissed.