Section: National News
Byline: Kirk Makin
Source: JUSTICE REPORTER
An Ontario judge has blasted the province's clogged court system for causing an Oshawa man to spend eight days in jail before he could obtain a bail hearing.
Ontario Court Judge Joseph De Filippis said that he was compelled to stay domestic assault charges against the 59-year-old defendant to convey how intolerable the dysfunction in the court system has grown.
"Significantly, this is not an isolated problem," he said. "There is no doubt that other accused persons were also adversely affected. I am confident that Canadians would be offended by this state of affairs. To allow this prosecution to proceed would undermine public confidence in the judiciary."
In September, Judge De Filippis stayed the domestic assault and harassment charges against Daniel Jevons, but he reserved his reasons for judgment until yesterday.
At trial, Mr. Jevons's lawyer had requested the stay because of the length of time it took his client to get bail.
Judge De Filippis noted that, during his sojourn, Mr. Jevons had been unable to obtain medication for his high blood pressure, had to sleep without covers or blankets in a holding cell and used a toilet that was in full view of others.
"What occurred to the defendant was not an aberration, but the result of long-standing systemic problems," Judge De Filippis said. "The defendant feared he might never be released before trial. That fear was reasonable. What is not reasonable are the resources allocated bail hearings in Durham Region."
Defence lawyer Boris Bytensky said in an interview yesterday that "unfortunately, this problem is hardly limited to this jurisdiction and remains a problem in many other places.
"What remains unknown is the extent to which persons within the Ministry of the Attorney-General are even aware of the extent of this problem, given that we discovered the statistics being kept by court staff in this case generally failed to convey the true state of affairs," he said.
Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, said that the problem is rooted in underfunding.
"The public, victims and defendants are entitled to a better allocation of resources that matches our expectations for the justice system," he said. "We can't keep pouring cases in without sufficient resources to get proper results."
While looking into delays in the case, Judge De Filippis ordered transcripts for every bail proceeding that had taken place in the Oshawa courthouse over that eight-day period.
They revealed that unmanageable caseloads steadily mounted. In one excerpt the judge quoted from yesterday, a beleaguered justice of the peace complained that the backlog "staggers human endurance."
Mr. Bytensky said that it turned out that courtroom clerks were routinely entering incorrect information into court records that understated the delay problem. Instead of listing adjournments as delays caused by a lack of resources, he said that they were noting that the adjournments had been requested by the defence.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
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