Understand the Rules

There are different sections of law that sometimes apply to stay applications. Note the word "sometimes". It depends on what you are arguing.

Part 7 of the the Courts of Justice Act and regulations cover court proceedings in civil matters (divorce proceedings, child custody disputes, somebody is suing someone, etc.) Your charge is a provincial offence not a civil matter, so this section of law should not apply to you at all.

However, section 95(3) of the Act states that some of these rules do apply to provincial offences courts. Specifically, stay applications based on constitutional questions must adhere to section 109. This section contains the rules you must follow to apply for a stay.

Unfortunately, some justices recall this, and only this, from their initial training many years ago. They do not understand the difference between constitutional questions (very specific) and stay applications (very general). They have not kept up with recent case law from higher courts. They use what they learned like a blanket, covering everything that comes before them. Specifically they expect you to always follow section 109 when in fact almost everyone shouldn't.

Let's look at section 109 in detail and the reasons why you should ignore it!