R. v. Drake

canada, canadian, case law, court opinion, canlii, nsca, 2026nsca48, 2026 nsca 48 (canlii), 2026, nsca, 48, (canlii), cac 539414, 2026, criminal and statutory offences, criminal appeal, first, degree murder, whether conviction should be set aside and new trial ordered, identity of shooter central issue, conviction rested on key crown witness, trial judge errors in assessment of key witness’s evidence, appeal allowed, conviction set aside and new trial ordered, constitution, charter, trial within a reasonable time, canadian charter of rights and freedoms, s. 11(b), whether net delay beyond 30, month jordan ceiling was justified, complexity exception and requirement for crown mitigation, delay presumptively unreasonable but justified as particularly complex, no stay of proceedings ordered, delay ground dismissed, evidence, vetrovec witness, confirmatory evidence, whether trial judge relied on evidence not capable of being confirmatory, requirement that confirmatory evidence be independent and capable of restoring faith in relevant aspects, mischaracterisation of neutral or peripheral evidence as confirmatory, legal error established, new trial warranted, evidence, curative proviso, criminal code, s. 686(1)(b)(iii), whether legal error in vetrovec analysis caused no substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice, key crown witness as lynchpin of conviction, error not harmless given centrality of identification, curative proviso refused, conviction set aside, new trial ordered, criminal and statutory offences, stay of proceedings, remedy on appeal, whether appeal disposition should be stay or new trial, majority held delay justified by complexity, dissent would have stayed proceedings, trial judge’s evidentiary error required conviction set aside, new trial ordered, delay issue to be re, visited