Joinder and Severance: Counts

• Author: Steve Coughlan/Alex Gorlewski
• Pages: 296-301

296 The Trial Process / Informations and Indictments

3.1(d) Joinder and Severance: Counts

With what oence has the

accused been charged?

Murder and

another ofence5Are the oences part of

the same transaction?6

No

Does the accused consent to a joint trial of the charges?7

No

special

rules1

Summary

and

indictable2

Section 469

and non-jury

ofence3

Do the “interests of justice” require separate trials?8

Do the Crown and the accused

consent to a non-jury trial?4

Yes No

The oences

shall be tried

separately9

Yes

Yes

The oences shall be

tried separately9

The oences shall be

tried together9

No

Yes

No

At one point, the criminal justice system operated on the rule that a trial

could only proceed on a single indictment at a time. Because of that rule (even

though it is no longer a rule), one relevant question in determining whether

charges could be tried together is whether those charges could have been put

into a single indictment (used in the trial of an indictable oence). Criminal

Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 591(1) [Code] provides that any number of charges

— or “counts” — can be included in a single indictment, and so there are no

real restrictions on when dierent counts can be included in the same indict-

ment beyond limits imposed by jurisdictional rules. For example, because of

s 478(1), a court in one province cannot try an oence committed entirely in

another province (though it can accept a guilty plea to a non-s 469 oence: s

478(3)). Section 574 sets out a number of rules concerning which counts can