[ Use this link to return to main story ]

by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 12/97) - A package of reforms to the criminal justice system coming next year could rob people of the chance to be tried by a jury.

The federal government is considering huge changes in how justice is administered. Chief among its proposals is one that could eliminate pre-trial hearings and jury trials for people charged with all but the most serious crimes, those known as indictable offences.

"These sound like fairly major changes to the way criminal prosecutions have been conducted since the 1890s," said Yellowknife lawyer Tom Boyd, president of the Northwest Territories' Criminal Lawyers' Association.

The proposed changes have been attacked by lawyers across the country who say trial by jury is one of the foundations of democracy and will not save money because cases weeded out at pre-trial hearings now will end up going to expensive trials.

Boyd said that, traditionally, pre-trial hearings were an opportunity to correct the imbalance when the Crown, which has more money and power and lays the charges in the first place, confronts the defendant, who has only his lawyer.

The government wants to reclassify many crimes, allowing prosecutors the option of dealing with them as "summary" convictions, in an apparent attempt to streamline overburdened courts, particularly in the South.

If implemented in the NWT, the proposals would mean cases could be sent straight to trial in territorial court, where the jury option is not available and where there are no pre-trial hearings.

Pre-trial hearings give prosecutors and defence lawyers the chance to review the other side's evidence and cross-examine witnesses for the first time.

It is also where judges decide whether the matter should go to trial. The charges may be dismissed if the evidence is weak, or a person may be encouraged to plead guilty by his or her lawyer if the evidence is strong.

The hearing is considered an important safeguard in the justice system, and keeping court costs down by weeding out cases which do not merit full-scale trials.

The reforms would also allow non-lawyers to defend people charged with crimes that carry maximum penalties of six months or less and give courts the power to punish defence attorneys who do not show up or otherwise fail to meet their courtroom obligations.

But Northern courts are not as overburdened as their southern cousins, especially with lawyers who needlessly drag out cases, and may not need the same fix.

"I can't think of a single case where there's even been an insinuation that the defence is trying to delay a case," Boyd said.

He also expressed misgivings about having non-lawyers able to defend people.