Ontario Court Justice Andrew Buttazzoni stayed the myriad of charges faced by a local woman and two men after deciding their rights, under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, to a trial within a reasonable time had been violated.
In 2016, a Supreme Court of Canada ruling imposed a timeline to protect the right to a speedy trial.
The Jordan decision sets a limit of 18 months between the laying of charges and the actual or anticipated end of trial in a provincial court.
In an interview Friday, Jennifer Tremblay-Hall, one of two defence lawyers who brought and argued the Charter pre-trial motion, said there was a delay of 21 months, and one and a half weeks in this case.
There were no exceptional circumstances to explain the delay, and the Crown was unable to establish the case was particularly complex, she said.
"This is a classic example of neither the police nor the Crown implementing a process to ensure they comply with delay regimes," said Michael Lacy.
Under Jordan they have to bring cases in 18 months, the Toronto lawyer said in an interview. If it's going to take longer, it's up to the Crown to explain what they did, and how they did it, to move the case properly.
"The police didn't do anything different than in the past," Lacy said, adding there also was some delay in disclosure from the federal prosecutors.
He said the Jordan decision "protects everyone's right to have allegations tried within a tolerable time, rather than have them hang over their head until the police and Crown get around to it."
When contacted about Buttazzoni's ruling, a city police spokesperson said "It is not the role of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service to comment on court decisions."
Rebecca Gignac, Slawomir Bielawski and Brett Warnock were charged Aug. 24, 2017 following an eight-month city police drug investigation.
Dubbed Project Oak, the probe was designed to target and have a significant impact on high level drug trafficking in the community.
A large amount of narcotics, with a total street value of more than $250,000, was seized.
Officers confiscated 829 grams of crystal meth, 258 grams of cocaine, 134.5 grams of heroin, 22.2 grams of powder fentanyl and 180 grams of marijuana.
They also seized two handguns, 20 rounds of related ammunition, more than $20,000 cash and drug paraphernalia.
Gignac, Bielawski and Warnock, along with a fourth accused Nathan Albidone, pleaded not guilty when their trial began on Dec. 4, 2018.
Albidone was charged with a single count of possession of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl for the purpose of trafficking.
The federal prosecutor later withdrew this charge.
Gignac faced 17 charges, including six counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, nine firearm and ammunition offences, and a single count of possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000
Bielawski was charged with the same offences, as well as a count of possession of 3.5 grams heroin and fentanyl which were found on his person when he was arrested.
Warnock was being tried on two counts of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.
A total of 26 days was set aside for the trial, which was to take place intermittently through the early months of this year.
The trial began with a defence application dealing with the Crown's disclosure of material to the lawyers and redacted details in the volumes of information.
The blacked-out details related to confidential informants.
Tremblay-Hall said it took nine days to deal with the disclosure motion.
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