Bail Hearing Adjournments (Section 516, Criminal Code)
Criminal
Code
516.
Remand in custody
516. (1) A justice may,
before or at any time during the course of any proceedings under section 515,
on application by the prosecutor or the accused, adjourn the proceedings and
remand the accused to custody in prison by warrant in Form 19, but no
adjournment shall be for more than three clear days except with the consent of
the accused.
Section
516(1) of the Criminal
Code permits a justice, before or at any time during the course of
a judicial interim release hearing, on application by the prosecutor or
accused, to adjourn the proceedings and remand the accused in custody in
prison.
Where
the adjournment exceeds
three clear days, the consent of the accused is required. It necessarily
follows that an adjournment that is not
more than three clear days does not require any consent on the part of the
accused.
R. v. Donnelly, 2016 ONCA 988 at para 76
A
Crown’s request for adjournment pursuant to s. 516 is not an absolute right,
but rather must be made on a good faith basis and informed by the requirement
for a just cause analysis pursuant to s. 515, such that an accused otherwise
entitled to release will not be arbitrarily detained.
R. v. Donnelly, 2016 ONCA 988,
at para 80.
The lack of perfect
fidelity between the current state of the investigation and the information
provided to and disclosed by prosecutor making the 516 adjournment application does
not warrant a finding that s. 9 of the Charter
has been breached. [Section 9 of the Charter provides that “Everyone
has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned”]. To require police to
provide error-free, up-to-moment disclosure of the progress of the
investigation to the prosecutor would impose a disclosure standard of
perfection that would outstrip the legitimate disclosure requirements of R. v. Stinchcombe,
[1991] 3 S.C.R. 326.
R. v. Donnelly, 2016 ONCA 988, at para 79.
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