Appeal court to rule on 3 more dismissed Hay River cases

A panel of judges is deciding what to do with three remaining court cases that were dismissed in Hay River, N.W.T., last year. They were heard by the territory's court of appeal on Tuesday.

This comes just days after a Supreme Court Judge overturned eight other cases that were dismissed on the same day by the same judge.

The Crown's office appealed most but not all of 53 charges against 14 people that were dismissed by Justice Donovon Molloy on Nov. 9 last year because a Crown prosecutor missed her flight and could not attend court in person. The appeals were dealt with at different levels of court because they were at different stages when they were dismissed, Crown prosecutor Blair MacPherson told CBC News.

The eight cases overturned Friday by Justice Louise Charbonneau had been deemed summary conviction matters which are less serious offences.

Charges are presumed to be indictable more serious offences when they first go to court.

MacPherson said the three cases heard Tuesday were only considered indictable because they were dismissed before the Crown could say they were less serious. As a result, they were heard before the court of appeal.

MacPherson told the court Tuesday that some of the charges being heard were for impaired driving. Assault and breach of a restraining order were also among the 53 charges dropped last year.

In her decision Friday, Charbonneau ruled that Molloy had the authority to dismiss the chargesand tonot allow the Crown to appear in court by phone, but that his decisions were not reasonable.

Robin Parker, counsel for the three individuals at the heart of the appeals heard Tuesday, arguedthe decisions were reasonable.

She said the Crown did not ask to appear in court by phone, but rather, assumed that she would be allowed to. She also said that, when considered alongside two previous occasions that prosecutors missed their flights in the span of a month, that the Crown's "cavalier" behaviour warranted "punitive reaction."

One of the panel judges appeared to disagree that a punitive reaction would be allowed unless the Crownwas in contempt of court, while another said that the Crown did not have to explicitly request to appear in court by phone after missing her flight.

The court of appeal has reserved its decision, but did not say when that decision could be expected.