Introduction

• Author: Tracy Kozlowski/Joanne Stuart
• Pages: 1-10

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Introduction

Section 11b of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that

“any person charged with an oence has the right to be tried within a

reasonable time,” but what does this mean? Who is a person for the

purposes of this section? What does it mean to be charged with an

oence? When can an accused be said to have been tried, and, most

complicated, what is a reasonable period of time for someone to be

tried for an oence? If the Crown prosecutor fails to bring someone

to trial within a reasonable time, how can that be remedied, if at all?

The purpose of this book is to oer answers to these questions to the

extent that they have been denitely answered in the jurisprudence, to

provide a guide to applying the framework for assessing whether the

time required to try an accused is reasonable, and to consider some

of the emerging issues in the law related to section 11(b) of the Charter.

Each chapter tracks each step in the analysis of the reasonableness of

time to trial, followed by considerations of the remedy for a breach of

section 11(b) of the Charter and issues that arise in the appellate context.

The purpose of this book is to answer these Jordan-era questions to

the extent that they have been denitely resolved in the years that have

followed since Jordan, to provide a guide to applying the framework

for assessing whether the time required to try an accused is reasonable,

and to consider some of the unresolved and emerging issues in the law

related to section 11b of the Charter. To place that discussion in context,

1 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being

Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982 (UK), 1982, c 11, s. 11b [Charter].

2 R v Jordan, 2016 SCC 27 [Jordan].