In July 2016, the Supreme Court of Canada (R. v. Jordan) set a timeline for completing criminal trials from when charges have been laid (18 months for cases tried in provincial court and 30 months for cases tried in provincial supreme courts). If the proceedings have taken longer than that (with rare exceptions) they are to be “stayed.” Below are a number of cases that illustrate the harmful effect of an under-resourced/poorly managed court system.

1. 980 CJME: In April 2024, a sexual assault charge against Peter Larson in Regina, Saskatchewan was stayed because of lengthy delays with court procedures and scheduling. ↩︎
2. CBC: A man was charged with sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl who had visited the man’s house for dinner in December 2021. In 2024, a judge in Victoria, BC stayed the charge due to delays. ↩︎
3. CBC: Herbert Allison Best was charged in August 2022 with 6 cases of sexual assault and 8 cases of sexual interference and sexual exploitation of children. In June 2024, a Nova Scotia judge stayed some of the sexual assault charges because they took too long to go through the justice system. ↩︎
4. 650 CKOM: A Saskatchewan man was charged in March 2021 with sexual assault and touching for a sexual purpose. In 2024, charges were stayed due to delays from Legal Aid and the court-appointed counsel program. ↩︎
5. CTV News: A Saskatchewan man was charged with sexual assault in October 2021, the charge was ultimately stayed in 2024 due to excessive delays. ↩︎
6. Toronto Star: In September 2023, Timothy Carl Toole was found guilty in a jury trial of raping a woman acquaintance at her home in June 2020. Three months later a judge tossed the sexual assault verdict due to delay. ↩︎
7. Globe and Mail: A 45-year-old man was accused of uttering threats, assault with a knife and sexual assault against a teenage girl in Quebec. The attacks took place over 3 years, beginning in 2009 when the girl was 12 years old. In May 2023, a judge stayed the charges largely because police waited a year after charges were filed to make an arrest. The defendent would have waited more than 38 months after being charged for the end of his trial.  
   
   A Quebec man who faced charges of assault and uttering death threats against his partner was also granted a stay of proceedings in August because he would have waited more than 21 months for his trial. ↩︎
8. CBC: A man was charged with the sexual assault of a University of Toronto student (and two other sexual offences). Two weeks before his trial in 2023 (the previous trial dates had been rescheduled due to a double-booked courtroom), a judge granted the accused’s Jordan application and the charge was stayed. ↩︎
9. Toronto Sun: In 2022, Julio Salgueiro Quinteres was charged with sexual assaulting Emily Ager at her home in Toronto while she was sleeping. In 2023, the charge was subsequently stayed after multiple delays from lack of courtroom availability. ↩︎
10. CBC: A teenager was convicted of violently sexually assaulting a girl who was 5 years old when the assaults began. In 2023, the conviction was overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal due to delays. ↩︎
11. CBC: In January 2023 a man accused of sexually assaulting a minor in Peace River Alberta had the charges against him stayed due to delays. ↩︎
12. Global News: Brandon McNeil, a Nova Scotia man accused of committing sexual offences against two children in 2021 has had his charges stayed in 2023 due to “excessive delays in proceedings.” ↩︎
13. CBC: A man was charged in May 2021 with sexual assault against his partner in Moncton, New Brunswick. Charges were stayed in 2023. ↩︎
14. CBC: In 2014, a 21-year-old Ontario woman was raped by a man she knew from her hometown when he gave her and her friends a ride home from a party. The charges against him were stayed in 2022 because “the Crown did not meet the court-ordered timelines.” ↩︎
15. CBC: In 2019, 16-year-old twin brothers were charged in relation to a 2018 sexual assault in Edmonton on a teenage girl. In 2020, the charge against one of the brothers was stayed due to delays by the Crown. ↩︎
16. CBC: Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham, was charged in 2012 with second-degree murder for the killing of his 21-year-old wife. Trial was scheduled to begin April 2017 but he successfully applied for a stay of proceedings on the basis that the nearly 60-month delay was excessive. In 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal from the Quebec Crown for a new trial. ↩︎
17. CBC: Graeme Patrick Forsyth, who was a teacher in the Edmonton area was charged in 2017 with sexual interference, sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching and sexual assault against a student. The charges were stayed in 2020 due to significant delays from the prosecution. ↩︎
18. CBC: Regan Brant Tolbert’s sexual assault charge from June 2017 was stayed in late 2020 by a Nova Scotia provincial court due to “unreasonable delays.” ↩︎
19. CBC: Chris Hogan was charged in 2010 with sexual assault and unlawful sexual touching of a 15-year-old girl, the daughter of his employee. It took Edmonton police 8 years to execute the arrest warrant and as a result, Crown stayed the charges. ↩︎
20. CBC: Michael Ellis was charged in May 2017 in relation to the rape of a woman he’d recently met. Ellis’s trial was delayed once after a courtroom was double-booked, and then again for five months, because RCMP lost the contents of the rape kit. In August 2019, a Nova Scotia judge threw out the case for taking too long. ↩︎
21. In April 2018, Manjit Singh Virk was convicted in British Columbia court for sexually assaulting his cousins when they were girls. In June 2019, a BC Supreme Court Judge stayed the convictions due to court delays. ↩︎
22. CBC: In February 2014, Blair Hinkley was charged with aggravated sexual assault against his girlfriend in relation to an incident in her Alberta home that resulted in her requiring emergency surgery and multiple blood transfusions. A trial was set for December 2016 after a prior mistrial but charges were stayed after a Jordan application. ↩︎
23. CBC: A Portage la Prairie, Manitoba couple were charged with sexual assault and 2 counts of sexual interference of a young girl over a 5-year-period in 2013. They were convicted in May 2017 but the convictions were stayed. ↩︎
24. CTV News: In January 2017, a Manitoba judge stayed charges against a man accused of abusing the child of his former common-law partner. The charges of sexual assault, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and uttering death threats took place between 1996 to 2003 when the child was between 6 and 12 years old. 
    In 2016, the case of a man accused of sexually assaulting his daughter over a 4-year-period was thrown out of a BC court due to delays.
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25. The Star Phoenix: A youth charged with 2 counts of sexual assault in Saskatchewan had his case dismissed in 2017 after waiting 3 years for his trial. ↩︎
26. CBC: In 2010, a woman reported sexual abuse by her stepfather to Quebec City police. He was charged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation. It was 4 years before the case went to trial. In 2017, a judge stayed the charges. ↩︎
27. CBC: In 2017, a Nova Scotia judge stayed a 2014 sexual assault charge against a former St Francis Xavier University lecturer, Behrang Foroughi-Mobarakeh. ↩︎
28. CBC: In 2010, a man referred to as D.M.S, was charged in with six offences from the 1990’s – including incest, sexual interference, assault with a weapon. In 2015, he was convicted. However, in 2016, that conviction was overturned by New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal for breaching his Charter rights to a speedy trial. ↩︎
29. CBC: A 15-year-old boy charged with sexual offences against a 3-year-old at his mother’s in-home daycare had the charges stayed by an Ottawa judge after the completion of a trial due to unreasonable delays before a verdict had been reached. ↩︎
30. CBC: In 2012, a man was charged with sexual assault against a young woman he worked with at their place of work. In 2016, after multiple delays, the trial was supposed to start but the defence lawyer made a Jordan application that was successful.
    
    A man who works in an intelligence unit of the military was accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in late 2010 and early 2011 in Grande Prairie, Alberta. In early 2013, he was charged with six criminal offences. After numerous delays, the trial was scheduled to be held in November 2016. However, in mid-October, the defence successfully filed a Jordan application. ↩︎