Law Times

Law Times • sepTember 17, 2018 Page 5 www.lawtimesnews.com New secretary hopes to make progress on jury pools BY DALE SMITH For Law Times OTTAWA — the new parlia- mentary secretary for the federal justice minister, Arif Virani, says he hopes to use his new position to do what he can at the federal level to increase the represen- tativeness of juries as part of a broader focus on increasing diversity within the justice sys- tem. One lawyer, however, is not sure that the current proposals around eliminating peremptory challenges will have the desired effect. "It's one thing to say that we want to have a diverse pool of jurors, but if the original pool from which the juries are cho- sen is not as diverse as it needs to be, that's something that the federal government should be showing leadership on in terms of assisting provinces with di- versifying that jury pool," says Virani. "It's initiatives like that that I'd like to have an impact on." The federal government is looking at eliminating peremp- tory challenges as part of Bill C-75, an omnibus bill that aims to update the Criminal Code. Leo Russomanno, of Rus- somanno Criminal Law in Ot- tawa, says that because prov- inces are responsible for how jury pools are composed, such as using the municipal property assessment database in Ontario, any significant effort to make ju- ries more representative would need to begin there. "It would require discussions with provincial counterparts and provincial governments," says Russomanno. "I would say that he should look at Justice [Giovanna] Toscano Roccamo's report, from someone who has served as the judiciary for years and who has presided over jury trials, and to make the findings she did is astounding." Virani says he's aware of To- scano Roccamo's report, and while he hasn't had a chance to read it, it's the kind of analy- sis that he feels the government needs to study further because it exposed the diversity of the pool is lacking, particularly around Indigenous jurors. "That's something where the minister and I would be on the exact same page — we have to address Indigenous reconcilia- tion in a number of perspectives, and one of the ways is ensuring the diversity of jury pools so that, when you have Indigenous accused, Indigenous persons are part of the potential pools [from which] jurors are selected," says Virani. Russomanno says that when it comes to peremptory chal- lenges, simply removing it won't have the intended effect of in- creasing representativeness, and it may make things worse. "If it's part of a broader effort to reform the way juries are se- lected, then that could be mean- ingful," says Russomanno. "I would want to see what else is on the table. Peremptory challenges alone in C-75 look like some- thing that was done in response to the verdict in the Stanley case and the controversy that sur- rounded that." Virani, whose family were refugees from Uganda, attended the University of Toronto law school where he participated in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition. He also received the Harold G. Fox scholarship and travelled to London in the U.K. to train with barristers at the Honourable So- ciety of the Middle Temple. Virani articled at Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP in Toronto. He worked there as an associate until he joined the Ministry of the Attorney Gen- eral in Ontario, working in the constitutional law branch for 12 years. He also took a sabbati- cal to work both doing police reform in India for a year and as a prosecutor with the Inter- national Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for a year. The ICTR offered him the chance to return to his roots in East Africa, staying at Arusha in Tanzania, near where his moth- er was born. Over the course of the year, he worked as an assis- tant trial attorney on the team prosecuting the president, vice president and secretary of the MRND — the political party that masterminded the Rwan- dan genocide in 1994. "It was very troubling — the evidentiary material was hard to work through, and rape was used as an instrument of war," says Virani. "It was difficult sub- ject matter, and it was also dif- ficult litigation, because we were litigating in English, French and Kinyarwanda, so there were si- multaneous translations." Virani says that trying geno- cidaires is something that few people get to do, and he was honoured and privileged to be able to do so. At MAG, Virani said he spent time arguing cases on behalf of the attorney general, arguing about s. 2, s. 7, s. 15 and judicial independence, to name a few topics. "It ran the gamut," says Vi- rani. "It was very intellectually engaging. I'm quite looking for- ward to my new role because it allows me to apply those legal skills in my parliamentary ca- pacity." Virani says he brings more civil law experience than the criminal prosecution world, unlike his predecessors Sean Casey and Marco Mendicino. He also says he brings a human rights lens to the job, given his past work with the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Quebec Human Rights Commission. "As a person who's a refugee myself, who's a racialized South Asian Muslim, bringing my own personal lived experience to the table and how that informs my work, it's a different perspective and a different set of analysis," says Virani. He says he's also aware of the scale of the workload before him, with two large bills currently on the Order Paper — Bill C-75 and Bill C-78 on family law reform. "It's definitely ambitious, but I'm a bit of a workhorse, so I like having a full plate on the table, so to speak," says Virani. LT NEWS Offices on Bloor Street/Yorkville with collegial law firms, full service suite. Call Teresa (416) 866-4144 ext. 225. LAW TIMES Marketplace Arif Virani says 'one of the ways is ensuring the diversity of jury pools so that, when you have Indigenous accused, Indigenous persons are part of the potential pools [from which] jurors are selected.' LawTimesNews.com Fresh Ontario legal news and analysis available on any device. 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