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Nicole Nayel, right, and her husband, Amine, waited four years for the trial of the man charged with first-degree murder in the death of their son. But the man walked free when a judge stayed the charges because of the delay. (Simon Gardner\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The judge stayed a charge of first-degree murder because it had taken four years for the matter to get to trial.<\/p>\n
“There’s no justice and that’s what I’m having a problem with,” she said.\u00a0“I waited and I have been praying\u00a0\u2014 now it’s like everything got crushed right in front of my eyes. And the guy, he’s smiling and walking away free.”<\/p>\n
‘Culture shift’<\/h2>\n
Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen\u00a0Ganley\u00a0said that kind of scenario was what first came to mind when she read the Jordan decision.<\/p>\n
“If we’re taking years to get to trial, we’re not doing a great job of serving the public, and I think that culture shift needs to start happening,” she said.<\/p>\n
That shift includes basic steps such as offering trials in the summer.<\/p>\n
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- Liberals looking to eliminate many mandatory minimum sentences:\u00a0Wilson-Raybould<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Supreme Court sets new deadlines for completing trials<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Sounds simple, but Neil Wittman, chief justice of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench,\u00a0said the idea didn’t go over\u00a0well initially.<\/p>\n
“A lot of members of the bar didn’t take us up on it very quickly. They are now, and we’re offering more and more summer trials.”<\/p>\n
Courts in Alberta have also opened case management offices that handle\u00a0procedural matters that used to be\u00a0heard before a judge in a courtroom.<\/p>\n
Ganley said Alberta’s courts are hearing almost 7,000 fewer criminal matters per month.<\/p>\n
Fewer preliminary inquiries\u00a0<\/h2>\n
But it’s Alberta’s experience with cutting back on preliminary inquiries that has caught the attention of many legal observers.<\/p>\n
Prelims\u00a0are like mini-trials held to satisfy the judge that there’s\u00a0enough evidence to justify a charge and trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They used to be crucial to defence counsel because it was only then they were guaranteed disclosure of the Crown’s evidence.\u00a0But that changed 25 years ago when the Supreme Court told Crown attorneys to share as much as possible, as early as possible.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nAlberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley says her province has made some progress in streamlining criminal matters by opening up more case management offices. (Andrew Vaughan\/Canadian Press)<\/p>\n
In 2014, the Alberta government recommended preliminaries be held in only the most serious cases and in one year, the number of prelims dropped by 30 per cent.<\/p>\n
“That has worked well,” Ganley told CBC News.\u00a0“The Crown sort of turns their mind to that and the likelihood of success there, and I think that\u00a0is helping, because in some cases it is a necessary step and in many cases I think it’s really just a procedural step that comes from a bit of an antiquated place.”<\/p>\n
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- Father says court delays denied his toddler justice<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Conservative Bob Runciman, who chairs a Senate committee studying the court system,\u00a0agrees with that assessment.<\/p>\n
“We think there are areas where preliminary inquiries are not necessary,” he said.\u00a0“And the defence bar will fight against that in most instances.”<\/p>\n
Room for compromise<\/h2>\n
Ottawa defence lawyer Michael Spratt expects some of his colleagues will howl at the idea but he personally feels there’s\u00a0room for reforming prelims.<\/p>\n
“Maybe not have hard and fast rules, but make sure that Crown counsel [and] judges that oversee sort of pre-trial meetings between Crown counsel and defence counsel can sit down and make reasonable admissions and do the streamlining on a case-by-case basis.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nLawyer Michael Spratt expects colleagues will resist the idea of reducing the number of preliminary inquiries. (Hillary johnstone\/CBC)<\/p>\n
But he says that’s not how things work at the moment in Ontario. Last month, Spratt says\u00a0he received notice from the Crown that it wished to proceed without a preliminary inquiry on a complex first-degree murder case.<\/p>\n
“I think we have to be very careful, because if the pendulum swings too far one way … the inevitable result of hurrying things up, of reducing procedural protections, it will result in wrongful convictions.”<\/p>\n
Scrapping\u00a0mandatory minimum penalties<\/h2>\n
The approach to preliminary inquiries is inconsistent across the country, but federal Justice Minister\u00a0Jody Wilson-Raybould\u00a0says she’s open to hearing arguments for cutting\u00a0back on them.<\/p>\n
- Supreme Court sets new deadlines for completing trials<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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