EDMONTON — The son of an elderly couple believed to be dead after vanishing on a trip to B.C. says he doesn't hold any grudge against RCMP for what a courtroom has been told was their mishandling of evidence disclosure in the case.
Brett McCann has been attending a pre-trial hearing this week for Travis Vader, who is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the 2010 deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann.
The hearing is looking into arguments by Vader's lawyer, Brian Beresh, 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.
"Attending these sessions has really renewed my confidence in both the RCMP and in the Crown," Brett McCann said Thursday.
"The stay was due to mishandling by the RCMP, and I'm not really blaming the RCMP, but this massive and complex set of evidence records sounds like it was a formidable thing and it was mishandled."
He said he believes Doyle did the right thing in not proceeding to trial in 2014.
"I admire Michelle Doyle's professionalism in the decision to stay the charges," he said. "She wanted to ultimately ensure a fair trial would take place."
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.
Beresh has asked the case either be dismissed or the charges again be stayed, but Brett McCann is confident the trial will go ahead.
He also noted the family's $60,000 reward for information in the case is still out there.
The McCanns, both in their late 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.
