Trial delay spurs stay of drug charges

Judge says 25- month wait violates accused man’s charter rights

A Kelowna judge has stayed marijuana production and trafficking charges against an Okanagan man because of the length of time the case took to get to trial.

Mark Yanko was arrested after police found 341 pot plants and almost three kilograms of dried marijuana in a Lake Country residence he was in on Dec. 7, 2010.

His trial was set to start on June 4, 2012, but was delayed “to accommodate a more urgent matter involving an accused who was in custody,” Provincial Court Judge Robin Smith said in reasons just released. The trial was rescheduled to start this week.

But in a decision on Dec. 27, Smith stayed the charges and called the 25- month delay unreasonable and a violation of Yanko’s charter rights.

The judge quoted a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that says “how are we to reconcile the demand that trials are to be held within a reasonable time in the imperfect world of scarce resources?”

He noted that Yanko claimed to be unable to sleep normally, to have lost 70 per cent of his work since being charged, and that his legal fees were mounting.

“We, as a society, also understand that the trial process is stressful for all involved, and this is particularly true for an accused,” Smith said. “Often an accused has his/ her regular life on hold pending the outcome of the trial.”

Smith noted that neither the Crown or the defence lawyer was responsible for the delay, which was solely caused by a lack of resources in the courthouse.

It wasn’t the first time the Kelowna judge has been critical about an insufficient number of provincial court judges.

Last February, Smith dismissed drug charges against two Chinese immigrants because their case took too long to get to trial. “This is a sad state of affairs for the judicial system,” Smith said at the time.

The B. C. government has increased the number of judges since then. Last month, Justice Minister Shirley Bond announced the appointment of nine additional provincial court judges to deal with backlogs across the province.

B. C. Provincial Court Chief Judge Thomas Crabtree welcomed the move, saying “the early replacement of several judges scheduled to retire or join the senior program in 2013 will provide some capacity to assist in reducing the case backlog.”

“I look forward to our continued work with government in establishing a method to determine an appropriate judicial complement and to address the case backlog,” he said.