A recent Supreme Court ruling has police forces across the province – including Sudbury – scrambling to make sure people charged with serious crimes don't walk away scot-free.
That's exactly what happened in a recent case in which charges against a Sudbury man caught driving drunk in Mississauga were dropped because the Crown took too long to hand over evidence against him — a process known as disclosure — to his lawyer.
The reason is a court decision — R v. Jordan — which had the effect of putting an 18-month timeline from when someone is charged and when the case comes to court.
“The potential impact of this ruling is that minor charges may be less likely to be thrown out while more serious charges such as murder may now be in jeopardy,” a report to the police services board said.
“The service is examining all systems and processes in order to ensure compliancy with the new requirements, albeit a level of uncertainty in terms of how the requirements will be instituted during the transition, for example, how cases that began prior to the decision in Jordan will be handled.”
In the case of the Sudbury man, he was charged in late 2014, but delays in disclosure meant his case didn't come to court until 2016.
Following yesterday's Police Services Board meeting, Chief Paul Pedersen said something similar could happen in Greater Sudbury
"It's very much a possibility,” he said. “There's certainly cases in Sudbury, there's cases across the province” that are similar, he said.
“(But) we've done our review and our analysis and we are, for the most part, compliant, but there are still some cases that we're going to have to work very hard to make sure all the disclosure is there for the prosecutors, so they can give it to the defence."
