Court rules defence partly to blame for delay beyond Jordan ceiling
WINNIPEG, Man. — A Manitoba provincial court judge has dismissed an application to stay firearms and drug trafficking charges against Thomas Lee, ruling that defence counsel bore some responsibility for delay that pushed the case 19 days past the Supreme Court’s 18-month presumptive ceiling.
Judge P. Devine attributed one month of delay to the defence, bringing total elapsed time to 17 months and 19 days — within the limit set by R. v. Jordan. Lee’s trial is scheduled for November 9, 10 and 12, 2026.
Lee was arrested March 6, 2025, after firearms and drugs were seized. Original trial dates in June 2026 were adjourned after the Crown disclosed cellphone evidence nearly six months after the trial was set. While the judge criticized the Crown’s practice of delaying cellphone analysis until a trial date is set — writing that it “prioritizes resource shortages over enshrined constitutional rights” — she also found defence was passive in pursuing the full Cellebrite report and unavailable for earlier trial dates in August, September and October 2026.
“The defence cannot argue that a trial could not have occurred during the months of August, September or October in any event, because he did not have disclosure,” Devine wrote. “It is not available to defence to argue the trial could not have occurred before November when he was the reason it was set for November.”
The judge rejected defence arguments that late disclosure made an earlier trial impossible, calling the reasoning “backward-looking and speculative.”
Lee remains in custody.
