Cocaine trafficking case stayed in N.L. after Jordan deadline missed by 7 days
A western Newfoundland man's cocaine trafficking charge was stayed after the trial timeline exceeded the Supreme Court's 30-month limit by just seven days.
Project Bustle charge stayed as Jordan deadline passes by one week
A drug trafficking case against a western Newfoundland man has been halted after the scheduled end of his trial fell seven days past the limit set by Canada's Supreme Court, cbc.ca reports.
Sean Gibbons was facing one count of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. His three-day trial was set to begin in Corner Brook on Tuesday and conclude later this week, but Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Thomas Johnson stayed the proceedings, ruling that Gibbons's right to be tried within a reasonable time had been infringed.
The R. v. Jordan decision, handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada roughly a decade ago, established firm timelines for trials to be completed from the date charges are laid — 18 months in provincial courts and 30 months in superior courts. In the Gibbons case, the trial was scheduled to wrap at 30 months and seven days.
Johnson found that delays in providing disclosure of evidence had pushed the trial date beyond the acceptable ceiling. He ruled that none of those delays were caused by the defence, and rejected Crown submissions that exceptional circumstances applied. The Crown had argued that the inadvertent disclosure of privileged information to all accused in Project Bustle — and difficulties in retrieving it from the lawyer of one of Gibbons's co-accused — constituted such circumstances.
The judge found that issue did not cause delays specific to Gibbons's case, and that the Crown had not demonstrated it took reasonable steps to address the delays it believed should be excluded from the count. Johnson acknowledged that disclosure in the Project Bustle investigation was "very voluminous" — encompassing thousands of documents, search warrants, wiretap authorizations and intercepted communications — but found the Crown had not established that the case was particularly complex. No time was therefore deducted to bring the matter under the Jordan ceiling.
The federal Crown declined to comment on whether an appeal would be filed.
According to the RCMP, Project Bustle was a three-year investigation into interprovincial drug trafficking by an organized crime network that resulted in multiple arrests. The case against Gibbons is the latest in a series of Newfoundland and Labrador prosecutions to be stayed following trial delays.
Last month, the RCMP announced that Stephen Kelly, 45, of Gander pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine, four counts of cocaine trafficking and laundering proceeds of crime. Sentencing in that case is expected this fall. Charges against a 25-year-old accused from Corner Brook were also stayed in late 2025, the RCMP said.
Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)