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Kiss a $14-million fraud case goodbye.

The frustration in the downtown Toronto courtroom was palpable. A scheme that allegedly defrauded 5,000 investors across Canada is now in “extreme jeopardy” after a judge shortage forced Superior Court Justice John McMahon to postpone the trial until January 2019. That will make it 60 months from the date of arrest to get to trial, double the 30-month maximum set out in the Supreme Court case known as R v. Jordan.

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It’s not often that a Superior Court judge publicly decries the state of the judicial system, but Thursday morning, McMahon made his dismay known.

“The frustration of this court is with not having sufficient resources to do the job despite everybody’s best efforts,” McMahon said. “I apologize to you. I apologize to the Crown. I just don’t have a judge to do a 12-week trial.”

The Toronto courthouse has 44 scheduled homicide trials this year alone, he said, and when he reached out to colleagues in neighbouring regions , neither Newmarket nor Brampton had judges they could spare to conduct a three-month trial.