François Perreault, accused of attacking his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend with a knife, was spared trial in 2018 because the case took too long to get to court.
The judge who stayed the case cited a systemic delay at the Ottawa courthouse, noting it was overbooked and short two judges.
[…]
The Crown appealed the stay, but lost this week when the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld the lower-court stay on Sept 15.
In its unsuccessful appeal, the Crown argued that the delay was anchored in exceptional, unforeseen circumstances, but the top court ruled it was anything but.
For starters, Perreault’s trial was only scheduled some 16 months after he was arrested. That left only two months in the presumptive ceiling. If all went well, the trial would have ended just five days shy of the ceiling.
So there was no wiggle room if anything went wrong, as appeal lawyer Howard Krongold put it in his successful factum.
[…]
Read Gary Dimmock’s full article: Ottawa Citizen
