Court of Appeal for Ontario

Date: 2019-05-22 Docket: C63371 Judges: Doherty, Benotto and Huscroft JJ.A.

Between

Her Majesty the Queen Appellant

and

Jeremiah Igenu Respondent

Counsel

Bradley Reitz, for the appellant

No one appearing, for the respondent

Hearing

Heard: May 17, 2019

On appeal from: The acquittal entered by Justice D. McLeod of the Ontario Court of Justice, dated January 27, 2017.

Appeal Book Endorsement

[1] The respondent has been served with the Notice of Appeal, but nothing else. As far as the Crown knows, he is unaware of today's date. The Crown has made unsuccessful efforts to locate the respondent. Crown counsel does not ask the court to proceed with the appeal in the absence of the respondent. He asks that the hearing be adjourned to allow further efforts to locate the respondent, although he acknowledges that he has no reason to think those efforts will bear fruit.

[2] The appeal is almost 2½ years old. Although we were prepared to deal with the appeal today, we are willing to accede to the Crown's request to adjourn this to September 4, 2019. If the respondent does not appear, the Crown must be prepared, subject to the order of the court, to either argue the merits or request that the appeal be dismissed as abandoned.