Accused charged with causing a disturbance and assaulting a peace officer sought a stay of proceedings pursuant to s. 11(b) of the Charter on the basis that her right to be tried within a reasonable time had been breached.
The overall delay was 718 days.
After deducting 99 days of defence-caused delay attributable to failure to retain counsel, obtaining instructions, counsel unavailability for judicial pre-trial, and a partial attribution of unavailability for continuation dates, the net delay was 619 days, exceeding the 18-month presumptive ceiling by 71 days.
The Crown failed to establish exceptional circumstances, as the case was routine and straightforward, lacking the hallmarks of complexity, and the Crown had not developed a concrete plan to minimize delay occasioned by any alleged administrative complexity.
