Monday, December 16, 2019
Independent Review; Canada: Important First Step (HL): Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructs Federal Justice Minister David Lametti to "Establish an independent Criminal Case Review Commission to make it easier and faster for potentially wrongfully convicted people to have their applications reviewed."..."There are a number of reasons for this. First, a prisoner serving a sentence will rarely have the resources to challenge his conviction. Second, he or she is unlikely to have much faith in a system that relies on the Minister of Justice for a remedy— one only has to consider the Justice Ministers of the last ten years, whose focus seems to have been exclusively on “law and order” rather than “justice” issues. Seeking a remedy from the Minister can take years and years, and the Minister (through the CCRG), not surprisingly, generally takes an adversarial position to an applicant in the investigation of a wrongful conviction claim."
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: With reference to a notorious miscarriage of justice reported on this Blog - the wrongful conviction of Glen Assoun in Halifax, the oppressive acts of police and prosecutors were aggravated even further when Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould was reported to have sat for 18 months on the findings of the Justice Department's criminal conviction review group, which ultimately recommended a new trial be ordered for Glen Assoun. Indeed, the public breaction to this bureaucratic lack of commitment may have fueled calls inside the then majority liberal government to set up an independent criminal case review tribunal, as sought for years by Innocence Canada, formerly known as AIDWYC. (Association in defence of the wrongly convicted.) It is encouraging to see Prime Minister Trudeau putting the Justice Minister on notice that his Government wants to set up a (badly needed) independent review body. However, please forgive me for curbing my enthusiasm (in the true spirit of journalistic skepticism) by referring to this development as a first step. What would make me a lot happier would be a timetable for getting the proposed independent tribunal in action - and a committal of the necessary funds. I will be following this development closely.
Harold Levy: Publisher. The Charles Smith Blog.
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RELEASE: Friday 13, December: Prime Minster Justin Trudeau formally instructs Justice Minister and Attorney General David Lametti to "Establish an independent Criminal Case Review Commission to make it easier and faster for potentially wrongfully convicted people to have their applications reviewed."
BACKGROUND: Innocence Canada (formerly AIDWYC) formally asked the Canadian Government by letter dated October 7, 2015, to repeal the current system of ministerial review - and replace it with an independent tribunal to examine claims of wrongful conviction.
ESSENCE OF THIS APPLICATION: (As per Innocence Canada Senior Counsel James Lockyer:
"The tribunal would have the exclusive power to refer a potential wrongful conviction to the
appellate court of the province where the conviction occurred. In essence, the tribunal would
replace the ministerial power of review and provide for a more reliable and satisfactory process
for the review of wrongful convictions. Such a tribunal was created for wrongful conviction
claims in the U.K. in 1995 and is known as the Criminal Cases Review Commission......... Applications to the Minister for ministerial review are few and far between. There are a number
of reasons for this. First, a prisoner serving a sentence will rarely have the resources to challenge
his conviction. Second, he or she is unlikely to have much faith in a system that relies on the
Minister of Justice for a remedy— one only has to consider the Justice Ministers of the last ten
years, whose focus seems to have been exclusively on “law and order” rather than “justice”
issues. Seeking a remedy from the Minister can take years and years, and the Minister (through
the CCRG), not surprisingly, generally takes an adversarial position to an applicant in the
investigation of a wrongful conviction claim.
CONTEXT: The United Kingdom has had an independent criminal cases review body for years, and, under the leadership and inspiration of Dr. Robert Moles and Professor Bibi Sangha in Australia, a movement has been percolating to spread independent criminal review boards throughout Australia and beyond. These two innovators - I am proud to count on them as my friends and mentors - have spent considerable time in Canada and I'm confident that their presence and their writings have influenced the Government of Canada's decision to take this important first step.
The article referred to above can be read in its entirety at the following link:
https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/12/13/auditor-general-looking-ahead-to-larger-reforms-on-doctor-assisted-death.html
