Law360 Canada ( November 28, 2017, 8:31 AM EST) -- Appeal by the Crown from the dismissal of its appeal from the acquittal of the accused on a charge of failing to appear. The accused was charged with violations under the Highway Traffic Act (HTA) in relation to her operation of a vehicle without a license or insurance, and she was issued a notice to appear. She appeared in court as required and requested time to seek legal advice. The matter was adjourned and she was ordered to appear on a subsequent date. On that date, the accused did not appear and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Subsequently, the accused turned herself into police and was charged with failing to appear in court under s. 145(2)(b) of the Criminal Code. She later appeared in court and pleaded guilty to two of the HTA offences and the Criminal Code offence of failing to appear. The trial judge accepted the accused’s guilty pleas to the HTA charges, but refused to accept her guilty plea on the charge of failing to appear and acquitted her of that offence. The trial judge found that the HTA provided a specifically stated process to occur on the non-appearance of a defendant and that there was no separate offence for failing to appear in respect of a charge under that Act. He reasoned that there had to be related underlying criminal conduct involved in the breaches of the HTA in order to ground the charge of failure to appear, and because the HTA charges did not involve criminal conduct, the accused could not be convicted under s. 145(2)(b). On appeal, the Summary Conviction Appeal Court (SCAC) judge upheld the accused’s acquittal....