TORONTO - Ontario's Liberal government vowed to accelerate the workings of the province's justice system but shrugged off demands for a public inquiry Monday after lengthy delays forced a judge to stay corruption charges against six Toronto police officers.

Attorney General Chris Bentley, a former criminal defence lawyer, was cool to the idea of a public inquiry into his ministry's handling of the police corruption scandal, preferring instead to conduct his own review before implementing a series of changes designed to eliminate court delays.

"I expect you will hear me speaking to a number of different initiatives over the next number of months,'' Bentley said in an interview.

"The goal is to make the system faster and more effective.''

Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer said he could find no evidence of any urgency on the part of the prosecution and its "glacial'' pace in staying the charges last week -- one more reason Bentley's ministry should not be investigating itself, critics said Monday.

A stay of proceedings essentially puts the entire trial process on hold for a year, allowing prosecutors an opportunity to find new evidence to support the charges before the case is formally thrown out of court.

"I just think what we've seen here again is an example where the arsonist is assuring us that he can put out the fire,'' said Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory.

"(Premier Dalton) McGuinty said that his attorney general required time to thoughtfully consider the options, (but) it took Mr. Bentley exactly 24 hours to decide for sure he didn't want his department investigated by an inquiry, and I think that's all the more reason why we need an inquiry.''

The public has a right to know what went wrong in the case against the drug squad officers, and can't expect the government or a ministry to conduct an inquiry into its own actions, said NDP justice critic Peter Kormos.

"What we need to know is what happened since 2004 when these charges were laid,'' Kormos said.

"The fact is the public confidence in the criminal justice system has already been too dramatically eroded, impacted, infected for the attorney general to now conduct his own review.''

Bentley wouldn't address questions about why the prosecution dragged on so long or who was responsible for the delays, since the province could still appeal Nordheimer's ruling.

"Systemic'' problems, however, are not new to Ontario's justice system nor limited to the trial of the officers, he acknowledged.

"We're determined ... to speak to the issues affecting all types of cases in the criminal system, and that will include the special issues affecting the largest, complex cases,'' he said.

"I think what Ontarians are looking for are the answers to the direct challenges to the system that have been around for a long period of time.''

Thousands of other criminal charges are in danger of being stayed because of lengthy delays in getting to trial, and the Liberal government has done little to address the problem despite repeated warnings from the legal community, Kormos said.

"When we learn that there are almost 100,000 charges outstanding in this province that are over eight months old, this then takes us to the point where one can pretty reasonably conclude that we have a criminal justice system that is at risk of collapse,'' he said.

"Public confidence in the justice system is eroding every day as charges get dismissed, people are walking the streets who shouldn't be, people are being denied their rights,'' Tory added.

A spokesman for Bentley said the government had hired 150 additional Crown attorneys and 24 additional judges in recent years, and insisted it was "grossly inaccurate'' to suggest that 97,000 cases that are eight months old are in danger of having the charges stayed.

"The eight-month measure is a figure we use to determine how cases are flowing through the system,'' said press secretary Sheamus Murphy.

"If a charge has been pending for eight months it doesn't mean it's in jeopardy of being thrown out at all.''

The province has not yet decided whether to file an appeal of the decision to stay the corruption charges against police, Bentley said.

"The ministry's lawyers have been working around the clock, as expeditiously as they can, to determine whether there are legal grounds of appeal. When they've reached their conclusion, I will immediately let people know what it is.''