The Canadian government’s proposed changes to the criminal justice system will result in more wrongful convictions and penalize people of colour, according to defence lawyers.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould announced Bill C-75 Thursday, touting is as a means to reduce court delays “while ensuring that Canadians have a well-functioning criminal justice system that respects their rights and maintains public safety.”
Many believe the bill was in part a response to the Gerald Stanley trial—an all-white jury recently acquitted Stanley of manslaughter and second-degree murder in the death of Colten Boushie, a Cree man. As part of the bill, the government wants to remove the right of Crown and defence lawyers to exclude jurors through a peremptory challenge. However, experts who spoke to VICE raised a number of major concerns with the bill and said it will most likely negatively impact racialized people, who are already overrepresented in Canadian prisons
“These changes are worse than anything Harper ever did,” said Jack Lloyd, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in cannabis arrests.
Here’s a breakdown of the key concerns over this bill:
“Scrapping preliminary inquiries
Bill C-75 proposes eliminating preliminary hearings in all but the most serious offences (i.e. murder) as a way to “ensure criminal cases can proceed more efficiently to trial.” These hearings serve as a “dress rehearsal” for a potential criminal trial, said Toronto lawyer Dan Stein, which the media can’t report on.
“Both sides get to see how strong or weak their case is” in a lower pressure situation, Stein told VICE. The outcome could be that there isn’t enough evidence to go to trial, certain charges are thrown out, or the defence agrees to a plea deal because the evidence is so strong. Eliminating this step could actually make court processes more inefficient because trials will be less organized, and longer seeing as neither the defence nor Crown had the benefit of going through a dry run.
Lloyd said getting rid of preliminary hearings also means people could wrongfully end up in jail because a case that otherwise wouldn’t have made it to trial will go to trial.
“They are robbing accused persons of rights to speed up the court process,” he said.”“Police won’t automatically have to be cross-examined
The bill will also allow police officers’ evidence to be submitted in signed, written form, without requiring them to be present at trial and cross-examined. Defence lawyers who want to cross-examine cops will need to make a special request to the court.
Annamaria Enenajor, a partner at Ruby, Shiller, and Enenajor, said this provision gives police evidence a built-in advantage.“It amplifies the presumption of credibility of police evidence,” she said, noting often times it’s just the evidence of the accused versus the cops.”
How the Government’s New Crime Bill Could Screw Over People of Colour
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