Crown application for permission to approve substitutional service and extension of time for service of a Notice of Appeal. Judicial stay entered at trial in relation to drug charges on September 13. Crown filed a Notice of Appeal on October 11, and began to make efforts to serve the Notice on October 12. The Notice was substitutionally served on the accused’s daughter on October 13.
Held: Application dismissed.
Test set out in Roberge, 2005 SCC 48. Issues as to whether Crown moved diligently, and whether proper explanations for delay were offered. Strict approach. Crown offered no evidence explaining the delay in deciding to appeal, or why a substitutional service order was not sought on October 12 or 13. Crown sought a “retroactive blessing of the procedure it employed.” As per Chan, 2012 ABCA 250, the Roberge test is to be rigorously applied “where the liberty of the subject is engaged.”
In person