Ottawa court delays slow to budge despite Jordan ruling, numbers show

Among large Ontario cities, Ottawa has the highest percentage of court cases at risk of being thrown out because they are venturing precariously close to the 18-month deadlineset by the Supreme Court of Canadain itslandmark Jordan decision.

Statistics released by the Ministry of the Attorney Generalshow delays at the Ottawa courthouse have barely budged since the 2016ruling, whichplaced a strict timeline on the length cases should take from the time a person is charged to their trial.

By the end of March, there were 1,073 court cases over the past 12 months in Ottawa that had clogged the system for longer than 15 months or 21 per cent ofall cases.

According to the numbers provided to CBCNews, the situation essentiallyhasn'tchanged since the months just afterthe Jordan ruling.

The legal logjam remainsdespite the fact the provincecreated two new judicial positionsand hired three more Crown prosecutors to work in Ottawa.

TheDefence Counsel Association of Ottawa saidits lawyers won't hesitate to apply for a stay of proceedings under Jordanif the Crown and the courts are unable to reduce the delays.

Association directorAnne-MarieMcElroysaid the number of cases that have taken more than 15 months to come to trial suggests Ottawa's Crown attorneys shouldreduce the number of cases they prosecute.

"We need to lookat the attorney general and the Crownprosecutor'sduty to look at those cases to decide what is in the publicinterest to prosecute,"McElroysaid.

"What reallyreflectspoorly on the system is when you see a high profile case that has caused alot of hurt in the community [and] results in a stay of proceedings."

McElroypointed to the freeing of accused killer Adam Picardas an example of what can happen when lesser offences overburden a system.

Picardwas charged with first-degree murder in December2012in the death of construction worker Fouad Nayel, but the charge was stayed after it took four years for the case to come to trial.

The charge was reinstated after an appeal, but Picard is currently fighting that decision.

Another issue is the length of time it takes to bring a case to trial.

The Ottawa courthouse hasbeen successful in reducing that period from an average of 379 days pre-Jordan to 353 days but that's still the second-longest in Ontario, with only the Brampton courthouse, at 360 days, reporting a longer delay.

To cut trial times, court administrators are scheduling multiple trials to proceed on the same day in the same courtroom, but McElroy said that typeof scheduling is a gamble.

"That can cause a lot of anxiety in theclient. And frankly it's a waste of the resources of thedefencelawyer as well, [having] peoplewaiting around to see if they will be transferred to another courtor if [their case]will be adjourned to another day."

Aggressive prosecution?

The continued logjam isn't a surprise to Ottawa defence lawyerLeo Russomanno.

Russomanno said the city's Crown attorneys have a "tough-on-crime mentality" that leads to the prosecution of minor cases that wouldn't go ahead elsewhere.

"Toronto Crowns would routinely withdraw these kind of charges ... but in Ottawa they don't do that," he said.

Provincial statistics show Crown attorneys in Ottawa takeslightly more cases to trial than in Toronto.

In Ottawa, 12 per cent of cases were taken to trial in the 12 months leading up to March 2018, one percentage pointmore than in 2016.

In Toronto, 13 per cent of cases during that same period wentto trial but that's actually a three percentage point decrease from the pre-Jordan period.

Figures also show thatadministration of justice charges take up more time in Ottawa courts.

Of 16,860 received and pending cases in the capital's courts, 26 per cent involve crimes against the person murder, assault, or other crimes involving bodily harm.

However, 33 per cent involve administrativeoffences such as not complying with the conditions of release, not appearing in court, ordisobeying a court order.

That's much higher than in Toronto, where administration of justice charges account for only 18.9 per cent of cases.

'A shift in the culture'

Russomannosaidwhen people are given onerous conditions, they will breach them adding to their criminal record and increasing the burden on the courts.

But both Russomanno and McElroy said they're seeingsome improvements, with clients getting bail hearings sooner and judges demanding lawyers come better prepared to justify their motions.

"We are seeing a shift in the culture. Wenow have a [judicial]bench that's much more engaged than when they used to be in managing court time," Russomanno said.

"And I think that's a direct result of the Jordan decision."