Before a permanent stay for abuse of process is ordered, four criteria must be established: (1) prejudice caused by the abuse; (2) that the prejudice will be perpetuated or aggravated through the trial; (3) no alternative remedy is available; and (4) the administration of justice is best served by staying proceedings, having regard to the overriding interest in effective prosecution. The prosecution's duty of disclosure extends to providing material that may assist the accused but does not extend to providing written transcripts or translations of intercepted communications already provided in recorded form. A conditional stay requiring the Crown to pay an accused's costs of earlier flawed trials is not a costs order but a legitimate exercise of the court's power to remedy unfairness.
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