The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the Crown's appeal regarding Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham, an accused murderer whose case was thrown out because of delays.

Thanabalasingham allegedly killed his wife Anuja Baskaran in 2012 and was arrested soon afterwards.

But the case took years to come to court and days before the trial was due to begin in 2017, the case was thrown out.

The reason? A Supreme Court ruling known as the Jordan case, which set a new standard for a timely trial: according to Jordan, a trial must begin within 18 months of a person being charged, or 30 months for jury trials.

In Thanabalasingham's case, a Superior Court judge ordered his release in 2017, and Quebec's Court of Appeal agreed.

The Crown urged the Supreme Court to consider the case, but on Thursday said it would not.

Thanabalasingham was deported to his native Sri Lanka in 2017.

Canada does not have an extradition treaty with that country, so even if he had been ordered to stand trial in Canada, it would have been difficult to force him to come here.