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A municipal judge has thrown out 264 charges that were largely aimed at Montreal’s homeless population, arguing the court cases were delayed for so long they violated defendants’ Charter rights.

In his Sept. 13 ruling, Judge Gaétan Plouffe wrote that most of the defendants were “vulnerable people” accused of petty offences like sleeping on park benches to not paying transit fares. They’d been issued between April and September of 2017 but only appeared on the court dockets last July.

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That exceeds the 18-month time limit established by the Supreme Court’s Jordan Ruling. The 2016 decision found that making a defendant wait any longer would violate the Section 11 Charter right to a trial within a reasonable time of being charged with an arrest.

Experts say homeless people are frequently targeted by fines for violating bylaws and that, instead of acting as a deterrent against harmful behaviour, the charges make it harder to get out of homelessness.