Delay the Trial

This strategy should only be used if your trial is held within one year of your offence date. Otherwise you may have better luck making a charter application for an unreasonable delay (covered in Step 4).

The biggest obstacle in your path is the police officer as witness. If he is there in court, you should request an adjournment. You need a good excuse but typically requiring more time to prepare your defence or stating you have further disclosure requests will be convincing enough. Keep doing this until the cop does not show up. If he is not there, say you are prepared for trial. They have to drop the charge as there is no Crown witness. Be careful though, dragging the case out will only be tolerated so far by the justice.

Another strategy is to combine the request for a delay on the day of trial (if the cop is there) with a separate motion to change the date prior to the day of trial. Make this motion in between trial dates by filing a motion with the court. The chances of scheduling the police officer diminish when he is not there to confer with the prosecution. And typically a separate court hearing is required to set a new date.

The down side is that this strategy stretches the trial process out but does not allow you to argue unreasonable delay since you are the cause of the delay. It also takes up your time which means missing work. Consider this strategy carefully before you decide to use it.