Western Producer;
Fraud and breach of trust charges against a former Agriculture Canada researcher at the research centre in Swift Current, Sask., have been stayed.
Yantai Gan was to go to trial May 1, but a King’s Bench judge ruled earlier this year that the matter was taking too long.
Federal prosecutor Wade McBride said the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan decision established timelines to get matters to trial. For provincial court, the limit is 18 months and for King’s Bench it must be heard within 30 months.
“We argued all sorts of points as to where portions of the delay (occurred),” McBride said.
“In the end the trial judge found that to the end of the trial would be 30 months and two weeks, so we would be two weeks past that Jordan absolute limitation.” […]
Gan, now 67, was charged in November 2019 after a 21-month investigation by RCMP.
He allegedly worked for Gansu Agricultural University in China while also working for the federal government.
Court documents alleged the offences occurred between Jan. 1, 2012, and June 30, 2018. They said Gan entered into an unauthorized contractual arrangement with the university, failed to disclose the relationship and the remuneration he received, and that he recruited for, or organized, an international research collaboration for the university.
The arrest was kept secret for two years.
The greatest victory is that which requires no battle: “He told MPs that Mounties nevertheless parked police vehicles in front of the four suspected illegal police stations to show their presence”
h/t JM
