Appellate Review

• Author: Tracy Kozlowski/Joanne Stuart
• Pages: 158-162

158

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Appellate Review

A. STANDARD OF REVIEW

The applicable standard of review having regard to assessments of the

reasonableness of delay pursuant to section 11(b) of the Charter was

articulated in several provincial appellate decisions, including R v

Pauls, as follows:

[T]he standard of review is well established. Deference is owed to a trial

judge’s underlying ndings of fact. Characterizations of periods of delay

and the ultimate decision concerning whether there has been unreason-

able delay are reviewable on a standard of correctness.

Though the respondents in that case had sought to have the court

revisit the standard of review, the Court of Appeal declined to do so on

the basis of prior appellate authority on this issue. The Supreme Court

of Canada later armed the standard of review in the same case, noting

1 See: R v Jurkus, 2018 ONCA 489 at para 25, leave to appeal refused (without reasons)

2018 CanLII 116611 (SCC) [Jurkus]; R v Albinowski, 2018 ONCA 1084 at para 27 [Albinow-

ski]; R v Bulhosen, 2019 ONCA 600 at para 73, leave to appeal refused (without reasons),

2020 CanLII 17613 (SCC) [Bulhosen]; R v Warring, 2017 ABCA 128 at para 5; R v KN 2018

BCCA 246 at para 13; R v Regan, 2018 ABCA 55 at para 32, leave to appeal refused, 2018

CanLII 99645 (SCC); R v JEK, 2016 ABCA 171 at para 10.

2 2020 ONCA 220 [Pauls].

3 Ibid at para 40.

4 Jurkus, above note 1 at para 25; Albinowski, above note 1 at para 27; Bulhosen, above

note 1 at para 73.