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Courts still bogged down with delays, despite promises by government to fix the system
29-09-2017
Court room at the Calgary Courts Centre. Since October of 2016 there have been 137 Jordan applications.POSTMEDIA ARCHIVES
It was six months ago that Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley announced the province would hire 35 new Crown attorneys — on top of 15 already being recruited — to fill existing vacancies and take up new duties related to bail hearings.
That followed a move in the fall of 2016 to adopt a triage system, where prosecutors prioritize dealing with charges such as aggravated assault, sexual assault and murder, while potentially letting less serious cases drop.
The NDP government’s actions were taken in response to the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan decision in July 2016, which set out new guidelines for what constitutes a reasonable time for trial.
But James Pickard, president of the Alberta Crown Attorneys Association, said in a recent interview that “we’re still continuing along the same path.”
“I haven’t seen great improvement,” said Pickard.
“We are abandoning these viable cases, these viable prosecutions for significant offences.”
According to the government’s website, since October 2016, there have been 137 Jordan applications, which see defence lawyers ask for cases to be dismissed because of a failure to meet the Supreme Court timelines for trials to be held — 18 months after charges are laid for provincial court, 30 months for Court of Queen’s Bench.
The province says eight of the applications were granted, while 17 are pending. Prosecutors proactively stayed 13 cases because they would not survive a Jordan application.
There were 36 Jordan applications dismissed by the court, 31 abandoned by defence attorneys and a further 32 resolved in ways unrelated to Jordan.
In April of this year more than 1,400 cases, including more than 200 serious charges being heard at Court of Queen’s Bench, were in danger of dismissal under the Jordan timelines.
Court delays were a top item on the agenda when Canada’s justice ministers met two weeks ago in Vancouver, with federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould planning to address the issue by reducing the number of preliminary inquiries, streamlining bail rules and reforming mandatory minimum sentences.
However, there are few details, and no set timeline, around a reform package, though Wilson-Raybould promised that it would come “as quickly as we can.”
Pickard said he is glad that various levels of governments are looking at possible options, but he doesn’t know how effective the proposed steps would be if adopted.
He said the provincial criminal justice system in Alberta has been underfunded too long and there needs to be additional resources put towards bolstering the prosecution service and Legal Aid, as well as hiring more Court of Queen’s Bench judges.
“Jordan’s just exposed the problem that has existed for some time. It’s really shone the flashlight on the cracks we already had and so the public has become more aware of it, but these problems have been building and growing for quite some time,” said Pickard, who noted it is unclear how many positions have been filled since the government announced it would hire new prosecutors and court staff in March.
The NDP government did boost funding for court administration services, prosecutors and Legal Aid in this year’s budget.
In a recent interview, Ganley said the government has been practising restraint due to its fiscal circumstances — the deficit currently stands at more than $10 billion — but responded when “the facts on the ground changed” due to the Jordan decision.
She said that the government is “making some progress” on the court delay issue, although Jordan applications continue to come forward.
Alberta has been pressing the federal Liberal government to fill positions on the Court of Queen’s Bench, where there are 15 vacancies, and Ganley said she’s expecting Wilson-Raybould to move soon on appointments.
Ganley said proposed federal reforms will likely help the situation, especially if Ottawa reduces the use of mandatory minimum sentences except in the most serious cases.
“They don’t appear to have the effect of making us any safer, but they do in fact have the effect of slowing things down by way of preventing resolution,” she said.
Defence attorneys say they would welcome a relaxation of mandatory minimum sentences.
“The court system has been burdened by numerous, numerous cases that go to trial because mandatory minimums are in place,” said Daniel Chivers, president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association in Edmonton.
But Chivers said potential changes to preliminary inquiries, especially the possibility of eliminating them, should not be rushed into.
“Our experience is that preliminary inquiries save court time in the long run. They often will uncover issues that need to be uncovered before trials.”
