Judge rules against staying charges in Gatineau triple killing over trial delay

A Superior Court judge in Gatineau has ruled against staying three charges of first-degree murder against Shakti Ramsurrun, rejecting adefence lawyer's argument that the near five-year delay getting to trial has beenunreasonable.

Ramsurrun, 33, is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Anne-Catherine Powers,her mother, 63-year-old Louise LeBoeuf,and LeBoeuf's partner, 58-year-old Claude Lvesque,at a home inAylmer, Que., in May 2012.

Thetrial is expected to beginin early April 2017, nearly five years after the charges against Ramsurrun were first laid.

A landmarkSupreme Court of Canada ruling that has come to be known as the Jordan decisionrecently set new rulesfor an accused's rightto be tried within a reasonable time frame, and Ramsurrun'sdefence lawyerfiled a motion to stay the charges based on the ruling.

Trial delays of more than30 months inSuperior Court, or 18 months in provincial courts, are now "presumptively unreasonable" and violate the accused's charter rightto be tried within a reasonable time, according to the Jordan decision, which came down in July.

If the Supreme Court's new timeframes are missed, the onus is on the Crown to arguethe delays were caused by exceptional circumstances that were either reasonably unforeseen or beyond the Crown's control such asa medical or family emergency.

In this case, defence lawyerRichard Dubhad argued that limitedresources and courtroom availability in the Gatineaucourthouse were to blame. They had to wait about 10 months for a preliminary inquiry, and in 2015 a trial date was set for 2017,Dub said.

Justice ric Downs announced his rejection of the motion in court in GatineauThursday morning.