Ten years after R. v. Jordan, 2016 SCC 27 [Jordan], the Supreme Court has used two companion cases—R v. Vrbanic, 2026 SCC 19 [Vrbanic] and R v. Jacques-Taylor, 2026 SCC 20 [Jacques-Taylor]—to clarify how the “trial within a reasonable time” framework operates in Canada.
The bottom line
Somewhat unusually, the most significant takeaway from Vrbanic and Jacques-Taylor lies in what the Court did not do: It did not rewrite the Jordan framework to disturb the presumptive ceilings of 18 and 30 months.
However, the Court’s clarifications to the framework send a clear message that all justice system participants “must be proactive in ensuring that proceedings move forward efficiently and quickly”.1 In practice, defence counsel and Crown alike can expect to be held to a higher standard and required to collaborate proactively to move cases through the system efficiently. Defence counsel who are seen to be passive or uncooperative now risk having delay counted against them.2 Likewise, Crown
