No need to set time limit for sentencing proceedings, Supreme Court of Canada rules

The Supreme Court of Canada says a man is entitled to a reduction in his sentence for sexual assault because the post-verdict sentencing phase of the case took too long.

But the top court also says there is no need to set a time limit for determining a sentence because there is no persuasive evidence of a culture of complacency in sentencing proceedings in Canada.

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The man, an Iranian citizen living in Ontario on a post-graduation work permit, was convicted in October 2021.

Sentencing proceedings were ongoing in October 2022 when the man applied for a stay of his case on the argument that his Charter right to timely justice had been infringed.

The Ontario trial judge dismissed the application, saying post-verdict sentencing delay was subject to a five-month limit, and that in the man’s case the delay amounted to just under four months after deducting time for various reasons.

She imposed a conditional sentence of two years less a day, followed by one year of probation.

The offender took his case to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which revised the net post-verdict sentencing delay, finding it exceeded the five-month presumptive ceiling and therefore infringed the offender’s Charter right.

The Court of Appeal reduced the man’s conditional sentence to 20 months.

In its 9-0 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court said the appropriate test for assessing a sentencing delay is whether the time taken to impose the sentence was markedly longer than it reasonably should have been in all of the circumstances.

Writing for the court, Justice Sheilah Martin said that in the event of a Charter breach, the remedy that ordinarily would be appropriate for unreasonable post-verdict sentencing delay is a reduction in sentence, “although in exceptional cases a stay of proceedings may be available.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2026.