Criminal Code

Marginal note:Powers before evidence on merits presented

• 551.3 (1) In performing their duties before the stage of the presentation of the evidence on the merits, the case management judge, as a trial judge, exercises the powers that a trial judge has before that stage in order to assist in promoting a fair and efficient trial, including by

  • (a) assisting the parties to identify the witnesses to be heard, taking into account the witnesses’ needs and circumstances;

  • (b) encouraging the parties to make admissions and reach agreements;

  • (c) encouraging the parties to consider any other matters that would promote a fair and efficient trial;

  • (d) establishing schedules and imposing deadlines on the parties;

  • (e) hearing guilty pleas and imposing sentences;

  • (f) assisting the parties to identify the issues that are to be dealt with at the stage at which the evidence on the merits is presented;

  • (g) subject to section 551.7, adjudicating any issues that can be decided before that stage, including those related to

    • (i) the disclosure of evidence,

    • (ii) the admissibility of evidence,

    • (iii) the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,

    • (iv) expert witnesses,

    • (v) the severance of counts, and

    • (vi) the separation of trials on one or more counts when there is more than one accused; and

  • (h) ordering, in each case set out in subsection 599(1), that the trial be held in a territorial division in the same province other than that in which the offence would otherwise be tried.

• Marginal note:Hearing

  (2) The case management judge shall order that a hearing be held for the purpose of exercising the power referred to in paragraph (1)(g).

• Marginal note:Power exercised at trial

  (3) When the case management judge exercises the power referred to in paragraph (1)(g), he or she is doing so at trial.

• Marginal note:Decision binding

  (4) A decision that results from the exercise of the power referred to in paragraph (1)(g) is binding on the parties for the remainder of the trial — even if the judge who hears the evidence on the merits is not the same as the case management judge — unless the court is satisfied that it would not be in the interests of justice because, among other considerations, fresh evidence has been adduced.