How can this happen in Canada?
1st Manitoba court case tossed due to court delays; accused child sex abuser free
By Sean Leslie, Reporter Global News
Manitoba Law Courts Winnipeg John Woods / The Canadian Press / File
WINNIPEG — Charges against a man accused of abusing a young girl for six years have been stayed because of an almost four-year delay in bringing the case to court.
The victim claimed it took place between 1996 and 2003 when she was between six and 12-years-old.
The accused, from a remote northern community, was facing several charges including sexual assault, sexual interference and uttering threats to cause death.
He was supposed to stand trial in April but the judge agreed with a delay motion filed by his defence lawyer, resulting in the case getting tossed.
The judge ruled the amount of time between when the charges were laid and the trial was set to conclude, 44.4 months, was too long.
“There really is no issue here. The gross period under review
is August 1, 2013 to April 13, 2017"
"By anyone’s standards … that is an unreasonable delay,” read the decision from Queen’s Bench Justice Robert Dewar.
I agree completely, so why was it allowed to happen? Wasn't there some opportunity to start the case in 2014, or 2015, or 2016? Who authorized the delays? Why? Is there no-one in charge?
So is there no way for the victim to get justice in Canadian law? Is it her fault there were delays? Why is the pedophile's right to a speedy trial more important than the victim's right to justice? I don't understand how the victim can be so completely disregarded by Queeen's Bench? She is being revictimized by the very court that should be giving her justice. This is disgraceful and somebody out to be fined or fired or sued, or all three.
This is the first criminal case in Manitoba to have charges stayed following the Supreme Court ruling last year limiting the amount of time prosecutors can take to bring an accused to trial.
The case is one of around twenty in which delay motions have been filed by defence lawyers since then.
“As set out by the Supreme Court of Canada, anything in superior court over 30 months would be presumptively viewed as unreasonable,” said Alex Steigerwald, the defence lawyer representing the man in the case.
WATCH: Alex Steigerwald talks about case that was tossed due to delays
“The courts are sending a very clear message I think in this case, that an accused, an individual who has been accused or alleged to have committed an offence, their charter rights will not be trampled,” continued Steigerwald.
The victim's rights, on the other hand, can go to hell. Or does the victim have any rights? It appears criminals have charter rights but victims have none. At the very least, this travesty of justice should trigger an inquiry to determine what went wrong.
The crown has thirty days to decide if they want to have the decision reviewed but that usually doesn’t happen.
The accused and certain details of the case can’t be revealed because of a court ordered publication ban.
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