A trial date has been set for this fall for a man arrested in Ontario and charged in the 2014 death of his four-year-old daughter in Alberta.
Oluwatosin Oluwafemi was arrested in December 2015 and flown back to Calgary to face a charge of second-degree murder.
Oluwafemi appeared in court Friday and a two-week trial date was set for Oct. 2.
The court was originally told the earliest date would be Mar. 26, 2018.
Justice Earl Wilson of Court of Queen’s Bench insisted such a delay would be unacceptable.
“There’s no way we’re going to be putting this trial off for another year,” Wilson said Friday.
“This man is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.”
Officers were called to a home in Calgary on Dec. 19, 2014, and found the preschool girl in cardiac arrest and not breathing.
Olive Rebekah Oluwafemi was taken to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Watch below from Dec. 9: Staff Sgt. Colin Chisholm speaks to media after Calgary police charged Oluwatosin Oluwafemi with the second-degree murder of his daughter, Olive, in Dec. 2014.
Investigators said her injuries appeared to have been inflicted inside her home and were not the result of an accident.
Oluwafemi is originally from Nigeria and was working as a graduate engineer in the oil industry in Calgary.
He moved to Keswick, Ont., to be near his family.
Oluwafemi has been in custody since his arrest.
Watch below from Dec. 9: Nearly a year after four-year-old Olive Oluwafemi was found in cardiac arrest her father Oluwatosin Oluwafemi has been charged with second-degree murder. Sarah Offin reports.
Wilson said he hoped more judges would be appointed in the near future to help deal with a court backlog.
Last summer the Supreme Court of Canada handed down a decision that set new rules to ensure accused persons get a trial within a reasonable time.
READ MORE: ‘Unreasonable delays’ put 2 more violent criminal cases in Calgary in jeopardy
The court determined that cases at the provincial court level shouldn’t take longer than 18 months and cases at the Superior Court level shouldn’t take longer than 30 months from the time charges were laid.
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