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| Patrick J Ducharme |
A trial Judge, sitting alone, may hear pre-trial applications and reserve judgment on the applications until the completion of trial. When the reasons are delivered, they are deemed to have been given at trial.
645(4) A Judge, in any case tried without a jury, may reserve final decision on any question raised at the trial, or any matter raised further to a pre-hearing conference, and the decision, when given, shall be deemed to have been given at the trial.
When the trial is before a Judge and jury, the trial Judge, even before a jury is selected, can hear pre-trial applications concerning any matter that would ordinarily or necessarily be dealt with in the absence of the jury.
645(5) In any case to be tried with a jury, the Judge before whom an accused is or is to be tried has jurisdiction, before any juror on a panel of jurors is called pursuant to subsection 613(3) or (3.1) and in the absence of any such juror, to deal with any matter that would ordinarily or necessarily be dealt with in the absence of the jury after it has been sworn. The accused is to be present during the whole trial, however, subsection 650(2) of the Code permits the trial Judge to make an order for removal of the accused or to permit the absence of the accused in some circumstances.
Generally, all pre-trial applications are brought to the assigned trial Judge to:
1. Prevent fragmentation.
2. Provide factual foundation.
3. Permit trial Judges to reserve judgment on the application if not enough evidence is available at the present time.2
The above is the an excerpt of Patrick J Ducharme's book, Canadian Criminal Procedure, available at Amazon or in bulk through MedicaLegal Publishing along with Criminal Trial Strategies.
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