KINGSTON, Jamaica — Two accused Jamaicans are now free, although they cannot work or leave Canada, following a mistrial in a drug-smuggling case in that country.here.

The two were unable to stand trial because of a “critical shortage of Jamaican Patois interpreters”, the National Post reported.

The two, Ryan Douglas and Michael Bryan, were arrested three years ago at Toronto’s Pearson airport.

“I am shocked that, in a jurisdiction like Brampton, with the diverse population and the criminal caseload including narcotics matters involving Pearson International Airport, the availability of accredited Jamaican Patois interpreters is so slim,” wrote Ontario Superior Court Justice Clayton Conlan in the April 24 decision to end the trial, the National Post reported.

An interpreter was found but was deemed “to be incompetent” after failing to interpret verbatim the attempts by the accused to explain what had happened.

The National Post reported that one of the glaring examples “was a misuse of the Patois term ‘dash wey’, a Jamaicanized version of the English term ‘dash away’.

The newspaper said that in testimony, a defendant had used the term to refer to a lethal threat made against his family; a gangster had threatened to “dash wey” (kill) his father.

However, the interpreter instead told that jury that the gangster had threatened to “throw away” the defendant’s father.

See the National Post story