Court File and Parties
COURT FILE NO.: DATE: 2018/12/10 SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE - ONTARIO
RE: Her Majesty the Queen v. Sara Agley
BEFORE: Ellies J.
COUNSEL: Russell Wood, for the Crown Sara Agley, self-represented
HEARD: December 10, 2018
Endorsement
1The Crown’s application for certiorari is premised on the assumption that the justice of the peace “cancelled” the undertaking given by the accused to the officer-in-charge (the “OIC undertaking”) as a result of the fact that it was incorrectly dated. If that is, indeed, what the justice of the peace purported to do, I agree with the Crown that certiorari would be available to quash the act of the justice of the peace. Pursuant to s. 508(1)(b) of the Criminal Code, the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace receiving an information is restricted to confirming or cancelling the promise to appear (“PTA”). The OIC undertaking is a separate document from the PTA: R. v. Oliveira, 2009 ONCA 219. A justice of the peace has no jurisdiction to cancel an OIC undertaking under that section.
2However, I am not persuaded on the record before me that that is what the justice of the peace purported to do. Instead, based on the endorsement by the justice of the peace on both the information (on which she appears to have confirmed the PTA) and the OIC undertaking, she simply refused to confirm the undertaking. Under s. 508, she had no more authority to confirm the undertaking than she did to cancel it. As a result, the justice of the peace merely refused to do something she was not authorized to do in the first place. For this reason, there is nothing to quash.
3The application for certiorari is, therefore, dismissed.
Ellies J.
Date: December 10, 2018