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OTTAWA – The Bloc Québécois tabled a bill Thursday that would make it impossible for judges to throw out cases of violent and serious crimes like murder and sexual assault due to excessive delays.
Bloc Québécois MP Denis Trudel tabled Bill C-392 that would effectively put into law the reasonable time limits established by the Supreme Court in its 2016 Jordan decision.
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The ruling determined that a criminal trial must be completed 18 months after charges are filed in a provincial court, and within 30 months in a superior court case, otherwise a defendant can apply to have the case thrown out.
But unlike the Jordan decision, the Bloc’s bill also creates an exemption to those deadlines for the most violent and serious crimes in the Criminal Code, known as primary designated offences.
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That means that defendants awaiting a trial for murder, sexual assault, child pornography human trafficking, terrorism or dozens of other offenses would not be allowed to apply to the court to have those charges thrown out for unreasonable delays.
In its 2016 decision, the Supreme Court determined that excessive delays before a defendant’s case was heard violated their Charter of Rights and Freedoms right to go to trial in a reasonable time.
The Bloc’s bill proposes to invoke the notwithstanding clause of the charter to circumvent that right for those facing primary designated offences.
More to come…
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