Jurisdiction: Superior Court and Summary Offences


The jurisdiction of the Superior Court is to try indictable offences only, not summary conviction offences. The Supreme Court of Canada's decision in R. v. Clunas, 1992 CanLII 127 (SCC), [1992] 1 S.C.R. 595 deals with the issue of joinder of summary and indictable offences. This may be done only when the accused has waived both the right to be tried in the superior court and the preliminary inquiry.

Where a summary conviction offence is tried in the Superior Court together with an indictable offence, the question for the reviewing court becomes: was the accused  in any way prejudiced by the error? If the accused has not been prejudiced, the indictment in respect of the indictable offence can remain valid (though of course any conviction on the summary offence could not stand).

R. v. Allen, 2000 CanLII 16954 (ON CA); See 591(2), Criminal Code.

Stuart O'Connell, O'Connell Law Group, leadersinlaw.ca 

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