Supreme Court says trial-delay limits already flexible enough

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that its existing framework for criminal trial delays is flexible enough to handle increasingly complex cases—rejecting the Crown's push for looser timelines.

Chief Justice Richard Wagner wrote that the Jordan framework, set out in 2016, "already provides the flexibility necessary to address the Crown's concerns" and "can comfortably respond" to rising case complexity.

The ruling involved a drug trafficking case where the delay exceeded the court's limit by just four days. The Crown had asked the court to give judges more discretion to allow modest overages in complicated trials.

Under Jordan's framework, provincial court trials must be completed within 18 months of charges being laid unless the Crown cites exceptional circumstances like case complexity. The Supreme Court already decided in December to send the case back for trial and released its reasoning Friday.

The case, R. v. Vrbanic, involved 18 accused in a drug operation following a two-year investigation with extensive evidence and multiple pretrial proceedings—the kind of complexity the Crown argued justified timeline flexibility.

By upholding Jordan, the court reinforces an accused person's constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable time, a protection that has led to numerous stays of proceedings and acquittals when delays breach the limits. The ruling signals the court believes existing rules, rather than new legislation, adequately serve both justice and case complexity.