Court File and Parties

Citation: R. v. Williams, 2011 ONCA 641 Date: 2011-10-13 Docket: M40223 (C45773)

Court of Appeal for Ontario Before: Cronk, Watt and Karakatsanis JJ.A.

Between: Her Majesty the Queen (Respondent) and Justin Williams (Applicant/Appellant)

Counsel: Justin Williams, In Person Paul Burstein, Amicus Curiae Emile A. Carrington, for the respondent

Heard and released orally: September 30, 2011

On motion to reopen appeals administratively dismissed as abandoned on June 9, 2011, in accordance with a Notice of Abandonment, filed, dated June 3, 2011.

Endorsement

[1] On the basis of the record before us, as augmented by the materials filed by amicus counsel, we are persuaded that there is good reason to believe that the applicant did not fully appreciate when he entered his guilty plea that an NCR assessment and determination was in the offing. In this sense, therefore, the applicant’s plea to the NCR offences may not have been an informed one.

[2] We observe that it would be useful in cases of this kind if the presiding judge alerted the accused during the requisite plea inquiry at trial as to the implications of a court-ordered NCR assessment and finding.

[3] Similarly, the record supports the conclusion that when the applicant filed his notice of abandonment, he may not have understood that he was also abandoning his right to appeal from the NCR disposition.

[4] In these circumstances, we are satisfied that the interests of justice require that the appeal in respect of the two NCR matters be reopened and we so order.

[5] However, we reach a different conclusion regarding the applicant’s proposed appeal from his convictions on the summary conviction offences. We see no merit to the proposed appeal from these convictions and the sentences imposed are now moot.

[6] Accordingly, the appeal against the NCR-related offences is hereby reopened. It shall proceed through case management in this court. The application to reopen the appeal from conviction on the summary conviction offences is dismissed.

"E.A. Cronk J.A."

"David Watt J.A."

"Karakatsanis J.A."