New Jordan Law from the SCC: Sentencing Delay Under section 11(b) of the Charter
The Criminal Code requires that sentencing must take place “as soon as practicable” after guilt is found (section 720, Criminal Code); however, until recently, the constitutional boundaries governing the length of the post-verdict sentencing process remained open. In R. v. Jordan , the Supreme Court of Canada articulated a framework for determining whether the length of a criminal trial infringes s. 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , establishing presumptive ceilings of 18 months in provincial courts and 30 months in superior courts. However, the Jordan ceilings do not govern the entire lifecycle of a criminal proceeding; they apply strictly to the period between the laying of the charge and the actual or anticipated end of evidence and argument at trial. Up to now, the Court had not imposed presumptive ceilings for delays at any other stage. That changed with the Court's ruling in R. v. R.B.-C., 2026 SCC 30 (CanLII) , which addressed how to assess the rea...