Globe & Mail (archived);
Strict criminal trial deadlines imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada are derailing about 10,000 cases a year, a list that includes several alleged murders and hundreds of alleged sexual assaults, according to the latest Statistics Canada data.
The dire situation has led the federal government and the three biggest provinces to call on the Supreme Court to provide some leeway on the time limits, called Jordan deadlines, in a drug-trafficking case to be heard at the top court in Ottawa on Thursday.
The federal government is also planning to table legislative changes by mid-December to help address the problem of so many serious cases being tossed because of delays.
For decades, such delays have plagued Canada’s justice system. In a landmark decision in a 2016 case called Jordan, the Supreme Court tried to do something about them, citing a pervasive culture of complacency around the issue.
The top court created make-or-break deadlines. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, criminal trials must be completed in provincial courts within 18 months from the day a person is charged, and within 30 months in superior courts.
Never attribute to stupidity that which can be adequately explained by malice; How many serious crimes in Ontario went un-prosecuted because of the resources that were expended on Tamara Lich and Chris Barber? There’s a precedent, here. Roughly $7M of court resources was spent, about 20 years ago now, prosecuting Wheat Board dissidents, while violent crime prosecutions withered on the vine.