Nicholas St-Jacques

The Crown appealed a majority decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal upholding a stay of proceedings in favour of the accused for violation of the s. 11(b) Charter right to be tried within a reasonable time.

The Supreme Court applied the Jordan framework to characterize two disputed delay periods.

The Court held that an 84-day delay was attributable to the defence due to the illegitimate manner in which counsel brought a late motion for an unredacted copy of the information, but that a 112-day delay could not be entirely attributed to the defence given institutional delay and the trial judge's lack of initiative.

After apportioning the second period, the net delay still exceeded the 30-month Jordan ceiling at 950 days.

The appeal was dismissed and the stay of proceedings upheld.

The appellant was convicted of second degree murder following a jury trial.

The issue on appeal was whether the trial judge's charge to the jury was unfair because the judge provided opinions on the evidence while summarizing the theory of the defence.

The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously agreed with the dissenting judge in the Quebec Court of Appeal that the trial judge's charge compromised the fairness of the trial, and ordered a new trial.