Since the huge majority of prelims end in the accused being ordered to stand trial, the judge doesn't have to pay close attention. Hardly anybody wins on the charter argument that their case went on too long. Dragging the case on is a make-work project for the officers of the Court. The cops, the Crown, the judges and staff all get to haul boxes of paperwork and themselves and witnesses around from one place to another and get paid for doing it. Kind of like a boring holiday.
Preliminary hearings are also a chance for defence lawyers to pick up some extra cash.
The matter came to Court on Feb. 16. The officer who had stopped me insisted that the incident had occurred at 11 p.m. I questioned him about this and he was insistent. Court was adjourned for twenty minutes while the Crown prosecutor went to check what shift he had been working on that date. They returned to report that he had indeed been working days and not nights as he remembered.