Accused killer sent to trial asks to appeal ruling in top court

Charges reinstated by Court of Appeal

Ottawa’s Adam Picard wants the Supreme Court of Canada to hear his appeal of a ruling that would see him stand trial for murder more than five years after his arrest.

Defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon will ask the country’s highest court to reverse the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision to reinstate murder charges against Picard, a former soldier accused of killing Barrhaven construction worker Fouad Nayel.

In September 2016, Picard became only the second person in the country to have murder charges thrown out because of unreasonable delay following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in R vs. Jordan.

The Ontario Court of Appeal reinstated those charges in September.

“We argue that the Court of Appeal made a number of errors — and that there’s national importance in getting it right,” Greenspon said Thursday.

He wants a trial judge’s decision reinstituted. In November 2016, Ontario Superior Court Judge Julianne Parfett stunned an Ottawa courtroom by staying the murder charge against Picard, citing unreasonable delay.

Picard, who had been denied bail, was immediately released from custody.

Parfett made her ruling in the aftermath of R vs. Jordan, which set strict trial deadlines for both provincial and superior court cases.

The July 2016 ruling said that even the most serious criminal cases must be concluded within 30 months of charges being laid.

But the high court also recognized that cases already before the judicial system had to be treated with more flexibility.

The court has defined some guidelines for how these transitional cases should be governed. It has said that judges should consider the seriousness of a case — and whether the court delays would be deemed unreasonable under the legal framework that existed before the Jordan ruling.

Greenspon wants the Supreme Court to better define how judges should weigh competing interests in serious cases like Picard’s.

Last November, Picard walked out of the Elgin Street courthouse a free man 47 months after he was arrested in connection with Nayel’s death.

Nayel had been missing for five months when his decomposed remains were discovered in a wooded area near Calabogie in November 2012. Police theorized he was killed during a drug deal gone wrong.

Picard was initially arrested in December 2012 and spent almost four years in pre-trial custody. He was re-arrested in September after the Ontario Court of Appeal ruling reinstated the case against him. He was denied bail last month and remains in custody as he awaits the outcome of his legal odyssey.

Trial dates have been reserved in the case for April 2018.