EDMONTON — The lawyer for Travis Vader says his client, charged with the murders of an elderly Edmonton-area couple, is "the victim of an ineffective system that collapsed."
Brian Beresh's comments came Wednesday during his questioning of Sgt. Rick Jané, the head RCMP investigator in the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann, who vanished on a trip to B.C. in 2010.
The pre-trial hearing is looking into Beresh's argument that a nearly four-year delay in getting the matter to trial constitutes an abuse of process by the Crown.
Earlier this week, Michelle Doyle, Edmonton's chief prosecutor, called the disclosure of evidence by RCMP "a fiasco."
She said she decided to stay the charges against Vader, who had initially been charged in 2012, two years later because she had lost confidence in the RCMP getting full disclosure to her in a timely manner.
Nine months later, the charges were re-laid and a trial before a judge alone is now scheduled for March 2016.
Beresh has suggested the 2014 stay was just a way to buy time so the RCMP would have longer to investigate the case, something Doyle has denied.
On Wednesday, court heard how the case had led to the reorganization of how the RCMP manages its investigations and puts forward important findings.
Beresh wants the court to halt the prosecution of his client, or stay the charges again, and at the very least, wants any evidence gathered in the nine months between the stay being issued and the charges being re-activated not to be allowed at trial.
The McCanns, both in their 70s, were last seen fuelling up their motorhome in their hometown of St. Albert, a bedroom community north of Edmonton, in July 2010. They were on their way to a family camping trip in British Columbia.
Their burned out motorhome was discovered west of Edmonton a few days after they were last seen. Their bodies have never been found.
