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“A case will only be stayed for delay if an accused can establish that a delay was unreasonable having regard to a number of considerations, including the length, reasons and effect of the delay,” spokesman Brendan Crawley said.

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It was almost eight long years ago that Michael Moldaver, then a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal, stuck his neck out and spoke bluntly about the issue of trial delay.

“Criminal trials are spinning out of control,” he told the annual fall conference of the Criminal Lawyers Association in the fall of 2005.

“Sadly, they have taken on a life of their own, and if they haven’t already done so, they are fast becoming the masters of a system they are meant to serve.”

Judge Moldaver acknowledged all the factors that are at work – including the role played by his brothers and sisters on the bench – but he was clear that the bulk of responsibility for the length of time it takes ordinary criminal cases to get to trial lay with defence lawyers who then were filing a barrage of pre-trial motions alleging violations under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Read more from Christie Blatchford …

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Lawyer Alan Young, a professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, maintains the province must start tracking how many cases are tossed annually because of Ontario’s “slow” and “inefficient” system.