Law360 Canada ( December 18, 2024, 9:44 AM EST) -- Appeal by Crown against the summary conviction appeal judge's decision to quash the respondent's conviction and stay the proceedings due to unreasonable delay under s. 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ("Charter"). The appellant was charged with sexual assault. The Crown elected to proceed summarily. The trial was initially scheduled for November 4, 2019. However, due to various factors, including an unexpected issue with a witness’s evidence, the trial was not completed until November 24, 2020. The trial judge dismissed the appellant's s. 11(b) application, finding that the net delay was below the 18-month presumptive ceiling. The appellant was found guilty of sexual assault. On appeal, the summary conviction appeal judge found a breach of s. 11(b), attributing the delay to the trial judge’s unavailability and other factors, ultimately concluding that the net delay exceeded the presumptive ceiling by one month and one week. Consequently, the conviction was set aside, and a stay of proceedings was entered. The Crown argued that the summary conviction appeal judge erred by not deducting the period from November 13, 2019, to May 6, 2020, as a delay caused by discrete exceptional circumstances and, in the alternative, by reversing the trial judge’s attribution of defence delay during a five-month period. The Crown contended that the trial judge and the Crown acted reasonably in responding to the exceptional circumstances, and the defence was unavailable for most of the continuation dates offered....