Drug-related charges have been halted against a western Newfoundland man because the scheduled end of his trial was seven days past guidelines laid out by Canada’s top court.
Sean Gibbons was facing one count of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
His three-day trial was expected to start in Corner Brook on Tuesday, and wrap up later this week.
But Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Thomas Johnson stayed the case, ruling that Gibbons’s right to be tried within a reasonable time was infringed.
Johnson found that delays in providing disclosure of evidence caused the trial date to be delayed beyond the acceptable limit.
A decade ago, the Supreme Court of Canada’s R. v. Jordan decision set timelines for trials to be completed from the time charges are laid — 18 months in provincial courts, and 30 months in superior courts.
In the Gibbons case, the trial was set to wrap up in 30 months and seven days.
Johnson ruled that none of the delays were caused by the defence, and rejected Crown submissions that some delays were a result of exceptional circumstances — namely, the inadvertent disclosure of privileged information to all of those charged in Project Bustle, and difficulties in getting it back from the lawyer for one of Gibbons’s co-accused.
Johnson found that issue didn’t cause delays in Gibbons’s case, and the Crown didn’t show it took reasonable available steps to remedy delays it believed should be counted.
The judge acknowledged there was “very voluminous” disclosure related to the Project Bustle investigation — including thousands of documents, search warrants, wiretap authorizations and intercepted communications — but found the Crown hadn’t shown that the case was particularly complex.
As a result, no time was deducted to bring the matter under the Jordan ceiling.
The federal Crown declined comment on whether it will file an appeal.
This is the latest in a series of cases tossed in Newfoundland and Labrador after trial delays.
According to the RCMP, Project Bustle was a three-year investigation into interprovincial drug trafficking by an organized crime network. It resulted in multiple arrests.
Last month, the Mounties announced that 45-year-old Stephen Kelly of Gander pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including conspiracy to traffic cocaine, four counts of trafficking cocaine, and laundering the proceeds of crime. Sentencing in that case is expected this fall.
The RCMP say charges against another 25-year-old accused from Corner Brook were stayed in late 2025.
