Court of Appeal for Ontario

Citation: R. v. Charles, 2008 ONCA 237

Date: 2008-04-03

Docket: C48451

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

[1] Our jurisprudence clings to the jurisdictional/non-jurisdictional distinction on applications to quash decisions made at the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry.

[2] As 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.

[3] We 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.

[4] We would dismiss the appeal.