Prosecution Activities Overview

In 2018-2019, the PPSC worked on 64,203 files. This figure includes 33,850 files opened during the year, as well as 30,353 files carried over from previous years.^{Note 15}

Overall, PPSC prosecutors, paralegals, legal support staff, and crown agents working of behalf of PPSC spent a total of 1,179,206 hours working on prosecution files during the last fiscal year.

PPSC prosecutors and paralegals spent an additional 225,166 hours providing legal advice to investigative agencies, participating in various committees, both national and regional, and assisting with other important corporate work, as well as providing or receiving training.

File Complexity at the National Level

The PPSC classifies all files as low, medium, or high complexity. The illustration below represents the total number of files in each of these categories worked on by PPSC prosecutors, paralegals, legal support staff, and crown agents in the 2018-2019 fiscal year.

Top 10 Federal Statutes

The PPSC regularly prosecutes offences under approximately 40 federal statutes. The following chart outlines the top ten most frequent.

Disposition of Charges

The chart below provides an overview of disposition of charges for the 2018-2019 fiscal year summarized by accused and by charge.^{Note 16}

Types of Offences^{Note 17}

The graphs below illustrates the proportional values of PPSC national case files based on offence type for the fiscal year 2018-2019.

Stays of Proceedings Based on Delay

The Supreme Court of Canada decision in R v Jordan, established a new framework for the analysis of unreasonable delay pursuant to s 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The judgment set presumptive delay ceilings of 18 months for cases being tried at the Provincial Court level, and 30 months for cases being tried at a Superior Court level.

The PPSC has always placed a priority on ensuring that cases are prosecuted in a principled and timely manner, which includes building upon existing practices and policies relating to file management. The Lesage/Code Report and the recent Bouchard Report have highlighted the PPSC’s role in the forefront of the efficient management of large, complex prosecutions.

Since the Jordan decision was issued, the PPSC formalized specific measures in the PPSC Deskbook, by adding Chapter 3.17, “Ensuring Timely Prosecutions”. This chapter outlines steps to be taken by PPSC counsel and agents to anticipate time requirements and minimize delays in prosecutions.

The following table presents cases closed in the 2018-2019 fiscal year, that resulted in a judicial stay or the crown directed a stay of proceedings due to Crown delay broken down by region.