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| Bruce Baker |
Whatever the issue, be it ethical or just plain inability to deal with what should not be a very complex problem, those accused of some grave crimes, the last to be a sexual assault case last month, have been thrown out due to unreasonable delays in prosecution. I understand that an accused has the right to due and timely process, which is unquestionable. However, by allowing these cases to be dismissed, the government has forgotten that by doing so, they have entirely diminished the rights of those victimized by the offender.
The government must move aggressively to combat this issue. The time to act on this should have started when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the Jordan decision in 2016 (R. v. Jordan [2016] 1 S.C.R. 631). This set the framework for a defendant to apply for a dismissal due to unreasonable delays in prosecution. By 2019, the system faced 3,100 applications, with over 800 dismissals argued under the Jordan decision. Some of these are murder cases.
In any society, the ultimate right in any criminal proceeding must weigh heavily towards the rights of the victims, and still not prejudice the case against the defendant. I would imagine how a victim of a sexual assault must feel to see the person who victimized them set free. I would think the feeling would be like being raped or sodomized all over again. So, one surely can see the failure and pain these delays create.
A government’s first duty is to protect its citizens’ rights, peace, and liberty. Parliament has tragically failed to protect these rights in so many ways. However, the issue of the shortage of judges must be dealt with as quickly as possible. In this way, the rights of both the victim and the accused and due process can be protected without the worry of delay.
Our justice system is based on the notion that justice appears to be done (or not done), and right now, nothing is getting done. It is time to face this challenge and correct the problem.
Bruce Baker is a veteran and freelance journalist who penned regular columns on political and legal matters for The Globe and Mail and Maclean’s and former researcher/writer for Allan Blakeney when he was premier of Saskatchewan. You can reach him at brucebak@telusplanet.net.
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