Ontario is planning action on a report that lays out 41 recommendations to keep so-called "megatrials" on track instead of collapsing in delays.
The government requested advice on the issue after the collapse of a Toronto police corruption case last year. A judge threw out charges against six drug squad officers, citing unreasonable delays by the Crown.
Section 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that any person charged with an offence "has the right to be tried within a reasonable time."
Some of the main recommendations include:
- Putting prosecutors in Toronto and Peel police stations to give advice early on in a case
- Creating "superjudges" to deal quickly with pretrial motions
- Mandatory peer reviews of all large prosecutions in the early stages
The report's authors -- law professor Michael Code and retired judge Patrick Lesage -- say their recommendations aren't intended to herald a move to a U.S.-style system where district attorneys lead a police investigation.
"Wouldn't that be fabulous? Every case begins and ends within the hour -- with time for us to go to the refrigerator?" Attorney-General Chris Bentley said Friday in a facetious reference to the popular TV drama "Law and Order."
However, "life's not like that," Bentley said.
"We're simply recommending that that advice-giving role of the Crown be brought forward and be more vigorously integrated into the police investigation at an earlier stage," Code said.
Lesage -- who presided over the 1995 trial of sex killer Paul Bernardo, which was one of the biggest cases of its time -- said the justice system isn't based on a cost-benefit analysis, "but there are limits to the amount of money and amount of time available."
He urged his fellow judges to do what they could to speed up the process.
But Code and Lesage also urged that legal aid rates be increased for longer, more complex cases so that more experienced defence lawyers would be more willing to take them on.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Chris Eby
