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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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Special Act: an agreement or less money for lawyers
26-02-2017
Tabled Monday evening, the special law of Pierre Moreau force the return to work of the 1100 lawyers and notaries of Quebec on Wednesday mornings. (THE SUN, JEAN-MARIE VILLENUVE)
Deposited Monday night, the law forces the return to work of the some 1100 lawyers and notaries of the Quebec State from Wednesday morning.
There is talk of continuing "the talks with diligence and good faith" for a period of 45 days. If disagreements persist, they will be referred to a mediator appointed by the Ministry of Labor. He would have another month to try to bring the parties together, but would not look into the question of the independence of the lawyers.
At first glance, in the absence of an agreement, Quebec will then impose a much lower salary increase than that stipulated in its latest offers. The 2.1% increase expected for 2019-2020 seems to have completely disappeared. The agreement imposed would be 7.05% over five years. All Common Front officials won 9.15% over 5 years in the 2015 negotiations.
It has not yet been possible to corroborate this analysis with official sources on Monday night.
On Monday, both the President of the Treasury Board and Prime Minister Philippe Couillard explained the reasons why they believe that lawyers do not have the same status as prosecutors. However, they are open to discussing it.
Lawyers and lawyers in the Quebec state have been on strike since October 26.
