Welcome to Cases That Should Have Gone to the Supreme Court of Canada, But Didn’t! This week, lawyer Kyla Lee discusses trial delays
Acumen Law Corporation lawyer Kyla Lee gives her take on a made-in-Canada court case each week and discusses why these cases should have been heard by Canada’s highest court: the Supreme Court of Canada.
Nickola Antic argued that his right to be tried within a reasonable time was violated. One of the reasons that he had delays in his trial related to an issue of judicial misconduct that arose in his case. Because of that, his trial was delayed beyond the 18-month presumptive ceiling.
When he argued this, the court disagreed that the delay was an institutional delay or systemic delay or Crown delay. Instead, they found that the judicial misconduct an exceptional circumstance that required it to be removed from the calculation of delay. And that’s where this issue becomes so important.
Judicial misconduct is a hugely significant factor in trials. If a judge doesn’t behave appropriately, then that is a problem of the justice system as a whole.
Watch the video for more.
