Present: L'Heureux‑Dubé, Sopinka, Gonthier, Cory and Iacobucci JJ.
on appeal from the court of appeal for quebec
Constitutional law ‑‑ Charter of Rights ‑‑ Trial within a reasonable time ‑‑ Respondent consenting to several adjournments ‑‑ Consents constituted waiver or attributable to respondent.
Cases Cited
Referred to: R. v. Morin, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 771.
APPEAL from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal, [1993] R.J.Q. 23, (1992), 52 Q.A.C. 161, 78 C.C.C. (3d) 329, dismissing an appeal from a stay of proceedings granted by Barrière J. Appeal allowed.
Claude Provost, for the appellant.
Yvan Lerner, for the respondent.
The judgment of the Court was delivered orally by
L'Heureux‑Dubé J. ‑‑ This is an appeal as of right.
We do not agree with the majority of the Court of Appeal as to the effect of the consents by the respondent to a number of the adjournments of the proceedings. In the absence of any evidence that these consents amount to acquiescence in the inevitable, the consents constituted waiver or, as actions of the accused, were attributable to him.
Taking this into account and the absence of evidence of prejudice other than such as might be inferred from the delay, and applying the principles and guidelines in R. v. Morin, [1992] 1 S.C.R. 771, we agree with the conclusion of Mailhot J.A. that the delay herein was not unreasonable under the circumstances.
Consequently, the appeal is allowed, the judgments of the Court of Quebec and the Court of Appeal are reversed, the stay of proceedings is quashed and the file is returned to the Court of Quebec for trial.
Judgment accordingly.
Solicitor for the appellant: Claude Provost, Montréal.
Solicitor for the respondent: Serge Brassard on his own behalf, Montréal.
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