Controversial THC-impaired driving case makes its way to highest court in Sask.

Three justices hear the Crown’s appeal to overturn a judge’s stay in the 2021 impaired driving death of nine-year-old Baeleigh Maurice. Jacob Carr reports.

A potentially precedent-setting cannabis impaired driving case that ended in a controversial stay of proceedings has made its way to Saskatchewan’s highest court.

The Crown is looking to overturn a Saskatoon judges’ decision in a high-profile case involving a child’s death in Saskatoon in 2021.

In December 2024, Judge Jane Wooten stayed Taylor Kennedy’s charge of impaired driving causing death, in the crash that killed nine-year-old Baeleigh Maurice.

On Sept. 9, 2021, Maurice was walking her scooter along a Saskatoon crosswalk when she was hit by Kennedy’s truck.

At the scene of the crash, Kennedy told police officers that she had vaped marijuana and micro dosed magic mushrooms the day before.

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Kennedy was charged with impaired driving exceeding the prescribed blood-drug concentration of THC, causing death. The case represented the most significant test of Saskatchewan’s impaired driving laws since the end of the prohibition on cannabis.

In December of 2024, Wootten stayed the charge, ruling that Kennedy was not tried with a reasonable time.

The Crown now wants the court of appeal to lift the stay and send the case back to Judge Wootten for a decision based on the evidence.

In their arguments, the Crown cited instances such as the trial being derailed by minimal notice of a charter issue raised by the defence, which they claim complicated the case and gave prosecutors little time to gather evidence in response.

Defence lawyer Thomas Hynes implored the court to dismiss the appeal, stating that Wootten did not act in error, and that “this case simply took too long.”

After hearing both arguments, the court decided to reserve judgment on the matter. Their final decision is expected to take a couple of months.