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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