Trevor Cadieu, a retired lieutenant-general for the Canadian Armed Forces has received a stay of proceedings regarding two sexual assault charges from 1994 by Kingston judge Larry O’Brien. Justice O’Brien found that, given the trial was expected to conclude by mid-February 2024, the case will have exceeded the 18-month Jordan ceiling by a month and a half. He laid the blame at the feet of the military police investigators who delayed in sharing evidence with the civilian defence lawyers by 9 months. Other military cases have been subject to delays for similar reasons. Vice-Admiral Haydn Edmundson’s sexual assault trial has been subject to delays and Trevor Cadieu’s co-accused, Cory Gelowitz, has had his trial stayed for the same reasons. CTV News’s Kevin Gallagher, writes: “There are concerns that backlogs in the civilian system and slow transfer of essential evidence from military investigators could result in more stayed charges.”[1] The combination of delay between the civilian courts and the military investigators makes military sexual assault cases a type that can fall more easily through the cracks of the justice system than most other cases and establish a pattern of delayed and stayed cases.
[1] Kevin Gallagher, “Sexual assault charges stayed against former army commander over court delay,” CTV News, October 10, 2023, https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/sexual-assault-charges-stayed-against-former-army-commander-over-court-delay-1.6596432.
