It’s easy to stand on a pulpit and incessantly nitpick Canada’s criminal justice system, but there are reasons to defend it as the best in the world.
Granted, a lot remains to be desired, but be thankful this is not Russia or North Korea or some two-bit authoritarian banana republic. Our problems are very much of the first-world variety.
The fact that bad people have rights is a quandary we have yet to solve as a free and just society, but this may be the best we can get.
Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird was in town council chambers last week to give an update on detachment activities for the last quarter and shared some of his frustrations with how the court handles offenders. He made several excellent points, but was short on solutions.
There are no easy answers and minds far greater than ours have pondered how to produce the fairest, most effective court system possible to make sure those guilty of crimes are held accountable and the innocent are free to live their lives in peace.
When we speak of justice though, our foremost concern should be to make sure no innocent person is convicted of crimes they didn’t commit and that everyone’s rights are upheld, even when their guilt is obvious. That’s why defence lawyers make such a good living.
Everyone is afforded the presumption of innocence. That puts a lot of responsibility on Crown prosecutors who are literally dealing with hundreds of cases at a time.
To see a repeat offender back on the street after waiting months and months for a verdict has got to be frustrating for victims of crime, police and for any one who pays regular attention. Unfortunately, that is one of the fail-safe mechanisms in our system.
Charges get dropped, stayed and dismissed all the time, for a variety of reasons, which leads to bottlenecks in the system and Westlock is particularly bad because there are only three court dates in a month.
The docket is so full sometimes the court is only able to get to two of the five trials scheduled, which causes a pileup that affects every case that comes after it and it has been going on for years.
Westlock is in dire need of at least one more court date per month to alleviate the log jam, that would at least be a step in the right direction locally.
