Estates and trusts matters are just one segment of civil cases in the overall judicial system. Earlier this summer, there was an article on CBC News on how the civil and family backlog in Ontario has reached a crisis point. The article points out that criminal cases are treated differently because of an accused’s Charter right to be tried within a reasonable time. The maxim, Justice delayed is justice denied, in the criminal context now means that trials should be held within 18 to 30 months of the charge, R v. Jordan.
But does this mean that criminal matters are actually progressing quickly? Perhaps not.
In a recent decision of the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto, R. v. C.L. 2023 ONCJ 381, Justice Fraser had to consider whether the accused’s section 11(b) Charter rights were violated, for delay, when he/she was charged on February 29, 2021 and the trial could not proceed on March 23, 2023 due to the closure of four out of twelve court rooms on account of staff shortages. Here is an excerpt of some of Justice Fraser’s comments on the state of affairs in his jurisdiction:
“For more than six months leading up to the hearing of this application, staff shortages have wreaked havoc on the orderly conduct of business in the Ontario Court of Justice in Toronto. Hundreds of courtrooms have been closed and countless trials affected. This problem has been going on for so long that a procedure has developed around it. The Crown Attorneys rank their trials by order of priority and submit the list to the trial co-ordinators. The trial co-ordinators confer with the local administrative judges each morning and a decision is made as to how many courts can be staffed with the available workforce and how many need to close. This information is communicated to the judges scheduled to preside each morning by way of an email.
[16] Judges are often forced to share the available courtrooms in order to address urgent matters we are seized of. Crown Attorneys, defence counsel, complainants, witnesses, police officers and accused persons wait to find out if their matters can proceed. The litigants who are denied a court are traversed to one of the functioning courtrooms for their matters to be addressed. This is necessary to preserve jurisdiction over the accused and the charge. Sometimes, courts that are otherwise operational are overrun by the influx of additional dockets, which in turn causes delay for the matters set to proceed there. This is what happened on the first day of C.L.’s trial. Throughout this upheaval, trials are adjourned and serious criminal matters which should be decided on their merits are delayed.
[17] While there have been days when no courtrooms close, the kind of disruption described above has occurred on a large majority of the court days within the relevant timeframe. The Crown filed an affidavit detailing the number of courts closed between December 16, 2022 and March 30, 2023. The affidavit reveals that 125 courtrooms were closed on account of staff shortages during that time period.[1] I am satisfied with the accuracy of this document, as it accords with the emails I have received each morning advising of courtroom closures. However, this number fails to reflect the true scope of the problem. Those 125 closed courtrooms only reflect cases originating out of the Toronto West Courthouse at 2201 Finch Avenue West – one of six courthouses hearing criminal cases in the Toronto Region at that time. And they only account for a period of 3 ½ months.
[18] I have reviewed the emails sent out each morning advising of courtroom closures from March 31, 2023 to July 6, 2023, the date this trial was scheduled to conclude. A total of 343 courtrooms were closed due to staff shortages at the new courthouse at 10 Armoury Street during this time period.[2]”
These comments from Justice Fraser cumulate to a call for the province to address the staff shortages.
Thanks for reading.