No timeline for a fix as several high-profile court cases may be tossed

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Federal, provincial and territorial justice ministers have wrapped up two days of meetings in Vancouver with a renewed commitment to tackle unacceptable delays in the court system. And there is a high-profile BC case that is being complicated by current court rules.

Ottawa has been scrambling to deal with the fallout of a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada known as the Jordan decision that saw hundreds of cases being tossed out because of lengthy delays. The cases included murder trials, sexual assaults, child luring — all of which were stayed by judges because the defendant’s constitutional right to a timely trial was infringed.

The decision imposed, instead, strict time limits but throwing out serious cases has been a concern for critics. Take for example, the case involving Jamie Bacon who won’t be back on trial until March of 2018.

Federal Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould says possible areas of reform include doing away with some mandatory minimum sentences, eliminating preliminary inquiries and reclassifying some criminal offences. “I’m hopeful that we can have a package in the near future. This is a priority for me and it’s a priority for our government.”

Wilson-Raybould is promising changes but couldn’t go into detail about when a solution may be reached. “We are going to proceed as quickly as we can, recognizing the call from the Supreme Court of Canada to take substantive action to address delays.”

She feels what’s needed is the court system meets the highest standards of equity and fairness.

The Jordan decision, as it’s now known, was issued on July 8th, 2016, when the high court ruled the drug convictions in BC of Barrett Richard Jordan must be set aside due to unreasonable delay.

In a 5-4 ruling, the court said the old means of determining whether proceedings had taken too long were inadequate. Under the new framework, unreasonable delay was to be presumed if proceedings topped 18 months in provincial court or 30 months in superior court.

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