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Applying the Jordan framework: Are courts placing too much of the burden on the defence?
In R v. Jordan, the Supreme Court put a hard cap on the duration of criminal trials — sending a thrill of panic through the justice system in the process. The ruling is roughly two and a half years old now. Time for the training wheels to come off.Now, that backlog of pre-Jordan charges has been largely cleared — the transitional period is over. But Crown and defence lawyers alike report that trial times aren’t speeding up; statistics cited in a recent Law Times article show that in the Ontario Court of Justice, average times to disposition and the number of court appearances have not diminished since Jordan. If the SCC intended the ruling as a salutary shock to the system, it didn’t work.So what happens now?
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2018-12-18
RCMP’s forensic firearm testing backlog adding delays to justice system
The RCMP’s forensics labs are taking nearly four times longer to analyze firearms than they did just four years ago, adding delays to a criminal justice system under pressure to speed up after a recent Supreme Court decision.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2018-12-16
Court delays persist, despite Jordan
The Supreme Court of Canada decision in Jordanand the problems it tried to address are still top of mind in the criminal courts in Ontario nearly two-and-a-half years after it was released.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2018-12-03
The performance pay saga reaches a settlement
The issue is the prorating of performance pay in relation to pre-promotion period for the year in which lawyers are promoted. If a lawyer was eligible for performance pay and was promoted during the year, the Employer, rather than pay out a prorated performance pay for the period pre-promotion, paid out nothing at all regardless of your performance rating for the year. The AJC originally filed a grievance in 2011 and in response to that grievance, TB had conceded in the context of the adjudication hearing that pre-promotion service should be recognized. Unfortunately, the adjudicator originally disregarded TB's concession in his decision of 2015, requiring the AJC to file an application for judicial review, which eventually resulted on December 22, 2016 in a remedy limited to the right to pre-promotion performance pay for the year 2010-2011. Thus, the AJC filed another policy grievance on July 27th 2016. The hearing was scheduled for October 2018. We are pleased to announce that we now have a signed Memorandum of Settlement on this matter with TB.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2018-10-30
Not all Questions are Good Questions: Avoiding Discriminatory Interview Practices
Much ink has been spilled over a recent decision by the Commission de la fonction publique (the "Commission") on the topic of discriminatory interview practices. In Association des procureurs aux poursuites criminelles et pénales et Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales[1], the Commission found that the plaintiff had been discriminated against when she was denied a position due to her pregnancy.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2018-10-11
Federal government facing pushback over bill to transform justice system
One thing that both the prosecution and the defence seem to agree on is that the federal government’s push to cut preliminary inquiries in most criminal cases will not solve the long-standing problem of delays in the criminal justice system.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2018-10-01
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Alberta’s Crown prosecutors seek injunction in Federal Court to relieve workload
19-05-2016
Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould is the minister responsible for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada which is now facing a court action brought forward by the Association of Justice Counsel. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
The union representing federal Crown prosecutors is taking the unprecedented step of seeking an injunction in Federal Court to stop the Public Prosecution Service of Canada from requiring its members to staff bail hearings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The Association of Justice Counsel (AJC) has also filed an unfair labour practice complaint against the prosecution service.
On April 29th, federal prosecutors in Alberta were asked to cover an extra 32 four-hour shifts per week, with no additional staff.
The bump in workload comes after a report on Alberta's bail system. The review was ordered after the fatal shooting of a Mountie by a man with a history of violent and criminal behaviour who was free on bail following a hearing handled by a police officer.
Up until the report, police officers handled bail hearings. The report concluded Crown prosecutors should perform that task.
The thing is, Alberta is unique in that it holds bail hearings all day and night, every day of the week.
"What happened here is we were in the midst of putting together a grievance under the collective agreement about the workload in Alberta when they hit us with this 24/7 bail, so really it was really just the last straw in a situation that is completely unworkable for our folks," said Len MacKay, AJC president.
MacKay said the union decided to file its application for an injunction yesterday, when it realized the unfair labour practice, filed last week, would not be heard for at least six months. He said the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) has two options.
"One is to convince the court that they don't need to have bail hearings 24 hours a day (...), they'll have to perhaps try a little harder to get some funding to staff this new obligation," MacKay said.
A spokesperson for Canada's Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould says PPSC has, to date, not requested any additional funding. No one from the prosecution service would comment as the matter is before Federal Court.
Overtired prosecutors won't fix problem
Alberta's Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley also held back, "As this litigation is between the Attorney General of Canada and the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, it would be inappropriate for me to comment. We will be watching this case closely."
So far, MacKay said the prosecution service has asked its 56 federal prosecutors in Alberta to volunteer to work four extra shifts covering off the hours from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. Those lawyers then have to show up for their regular workday, sometimes on as little as two hours sleep.
"By moving crowns over to bail court, while you may have somebody a little better experience and better understands the law, if you're using people that don't have the personal, physical capacity to do these things, you're not fixing the risk," said MacKay.
"The messaging from management is please sign up for a shift so you can get one you like, or else you'll get one you don't like. So it is clear they will be assigned," MacKay said.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/crown-prosecutors-alberta-workload-1.3589516
