OUR SHAMEFUl ONTARIO JUSTICE SYSTEM

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following article titled "Trial delays spark review of charges". We are advised that the backlog is so immense that a first degree murder case has been thrown out due to the Crown's inability to bring the case to trial within four years of laying the charge. The Supreme Court of Canada passed the "Jordan" decision last July which stipulated that 18 months delay is reasonable for provincial cases and 30 months for cases before the superior court. The Ontario Crown Attorneys Association estimates that there are about 6,000 criminal cases that that could see charges withdrawn or stayed. They are laying the blame squarely on the Ontario government for their failure to increase the numbers of judges and prosecutors as well as having more court space.

This of course makes me wonder if this is the real reason that Election Act charges were dropped against Mayor Sandy Shantz in Woolwich Township. While the out of town prosecutor claimed that the charges weren't in the public interest was he perhaps suggesting that it wasn't in the public interest to let murder or rape cases be thrown out in order to appropriately prosecute other lesser charges? That would be understandable although I would prefer some transparency on the matter. Don't give guilty politicians the opportunity to lie more by claiming afterwards that see they really didn't do anything wrong when in fact they bloody well did.