Firearms case tossed over delays

Oshawa judge calls incident a sad state of affairs’

- JENNIFER PAGLIARO

Romaro Cameron was charged in September 2022 after police found a gun in his car. Trial dates were changed four times, leading to a more than 21-month delay.

An Ontario court judge has thrown out firearm charges against a man in Oshawa over trial delays, in the latest case to fall apart amid postpandemic challenges being faced by the province’s justice system.

In a ruling delivered late last month, Justice Mary Teresa Devlin found that the accused’s Charter rights had been violated due to a more than 21-month delay in judicial proceedings.

During that time, the judge found, the Crown’s office had failed to find someone to fill in for a sick prosecutor and the Central East Correctional Centre had failed to bring the man before the court for his trial dates.

The subsequent staying of eight firearms charges marks the latest in a string of serious offences being tossed as a result of court delays amid ongoing post-pandemic challenges that have stalled and stymied criminal cases across the province.