Random Access

Why do some problems, that look as if they should be fairly easy to solve, never seem to go away?
Take the ongoing shortage of judges and justices of the peace.
When Judge Casey Hill presided at the Davis Courthouse in Brampton December 4, he was supposed to announce his verdict in the case of former Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board Program Superintendent Bev Williams, who is charged with fraud related to HRDC grants.
It’s a high-profile case involving public figures, two different levels of government, allegations of kickbacks and phony invoices for phony jobs. Lots of juicy stuff.
Instead of delivering his verdict, however, Hill delivered a lecture, one that has been heard from the benches many times before, dating back to the old days of Peel County.
Even though the trial ended in April, Hill explained that he was not ready to render a decision. He put his ruling over until Feb. 19 because he simply has not had enough time to sit down and give it the reflection it needs before writing his decision. That’s because there are too many cases in Peel, regarded as the busiest jurisdiction in Ontario, and not enough judges.
It took more than six months to fill three vacancies on the bench, although there is no shortage of qualified candidates according to Hill (and numerous other observers.)
In the case of a shortage of Superior Court judges, it is the federal government that has been dithering over appointments. But we have exactly the same problem getting sufficient numbers of judges and justices of the peace appointed by the Ontario government.
That means constantly jammed traffic courts, deferrals of trials, delays, dismissals and loss of revenue for municipalities, and subsequently for Mr. and Mrs. Ratepayer. If everyone who got a traffic ticket ever decided to ask for a day in court, the whole system would quickly grind to a halt.
It doesn’t seem to matter what political stripe the government is, the problem of getting timely appointments within the justice system just persists and persists.
Every year at this time, Chief Justices of various courts give their little inaugural addresses. You can pretty well expect that this line will appear each year, “Unless the current vacancies on the bench are filled quickly, the court will be severely handicapped in maintaining access to justice for members of the public.”
Maybe we just need two new appointments to bring this whole matter into public focus. Mr. Justice Denied, meet Mr. Justice Delayed.