Court of Appeal for Ontario
Before: DOHERTY, MOLDAVER and CRONK JJ.A.
Between:
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN Respondent
and
TODD CHARLES Appellant
Counsel: Leslie Maunder for the appellant John Patton for the respondent
Heard: April 1, 2008
On appeal from the certiorari decision of Justice J. McMahon of the Superior Court of Justice dated October 31, 2007.
APPEAL BOOK ENDORSEMENT
1Our jurisprudence clings to the jurisdictional/non-jurisdictional distinction on applications to quash decisions made at the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry.
2As the reasons of the preliminary inquiry judge demonstrate, the distinction between a failure to consider relevant evidence in deciding what inference can reasonably be drawn (a jurisdictional error) and the erroneous determination that certain evidence is not relevant to whether a certain inference could be drawn (a non-jurisdictional error) can be very difficult to draw and sometimes seems to turn as much on semantics as on any principled analysis.
3We are, however, satisfied that the Superior Court judge was correct in concluding that the preliminary inquiry judge considered the evidence in isolated segments rather than as a whole (see paras. 37-42). This is jurisdictional error.
4We would dismiss the appeal.
