Law Times

Law Times • January 12, 2009 NEWS PAGE 3 if apparent government plans to shift to an automated, typing- pool style system go ahead. "We're concerned that the Reporters warn typing pools would compromise transcripts C BY ROBERT TODD Law Times ourt reporters in the province say the quality of transcripts will suffer record is really going to be com- promised, and people are really going to pay the price for that," says Kimberley Neeson of the Chartered Shorthand Reporters' Association of Ontario. A memo, obtained by Law Times and sent to lawyers last month, suggests a new system could be introduced in which the bulk of transcripts will be com- piled by typists at centralized of- fices. Helen Haggith, president of OPSEU Local 154 and involved in court reporter issues, compiled the memo. The system would see three positions created for court re- porting in the province, said the memo. An "electronic court monitor" would take the record in court, and a "transeditor" would type transcripts from one of eight regional offices. A "voice- writer" would be used in cases in which an overnight transcript has been requested, according to the memo, and would read the re- cord into voice-recognition soft- ware and edit the final transcript. Law Times' requests for com- ment from the Ministry of the Attorney General were not re- turned by press time. The ministry's apparent plans have become part of ongoing col- lective agreement talks between the ministry and OPSEU, the union representing court report- ers employed by the government, says Neeson. She says the issue is going before an arbitrator. "It's an access to justice issue, in that everyone who's before the court deserves a good transcript," says Neeson, who was president of the CSRAO in the mid-1990s when a failed attempt was made at creating a typing-pool system similar to what Neeson says the Parliamentary hearings not best Continued from page 1 process to replace Bastarache, involving consul- tations, an all-party selection panel, and public hearings. But in September, with the panel bogged down in procedural wrangling and a general election looming, the government short-circuited its own process and nomi- nated Cromwell. On Dec. 22, after he had been forced to ask for the prorogation of Parliament, Harper announced Cromwell's appointment, even though the Nova Scotian jurist had not faced a public hearing. Harper cited the urgency of filling the seat on the bench that had been vacant for eight months and pledged to return to his appointment mechanism in the future. Russell says the appointment process is badly in need of reform Justice Thomas Cromwell and Canada should move quickly to draft a new system. The tra- ditional procedure, where the government selection process takes place entirely behind closed doors, leaves the government in a conflict-of- interest situation, says Russell. The government chooses a justice who will then be called upon to hear important constitutional cases in which the government itself is often a party. Russell prefers South Africa's process where leading candidates for the top court go through a public interview with an advisory commit- tee. Unlike the Parliamentary committee hearing process set up by the Harper government, which Russell describes as a "charade," South Africa's advisory committee is composed of a wider range of people and the proceedings are presided over by the country's chief justice, he says. Roderick Macdonald, a law professor at McGill University and former president of the Law Commission of Canada, agrees that hearings before a Parliamentary committee aren't an essential step in naming Supreme Court justices. "It's a public relations exercise," he says bluntly. By the time a name even makes it to the prime minister's desk, the nominee has been thoroughly examined by the provincial screening committee and the government's own internal vetting process, pointed out Macdonald who went through a screening process when he was named to the law commission. Meanwhile, Guy Joubert, president of the Canadian Bar Asso- ciation, welcomes Cromwell's appointment, saying he is an excellent choice for the job. "As far as what happened in this round, that's a debate we'll leave for the politicians." Joubert says the CBA would like to see a transparent, non-partisan process for appointments to the Supreme Court and a publicly avail- able protocol. Adam Dodek, a professor of public and constitutional law at the University of Ottawa and Law Times columnist, says the ad hoc nature and 180-degree turn by the government on the appointments process is more a political issue than a legal one. Reforming the appointments process isn't a priority right now for either the government or the public, he adds. "I think that the reform of the Supreme Court judicial appoint- ments process is very much up in the air. I don't think it's a political LT CndConstitution_LT_Jan12_09.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 1/6/09 9:12:59 AM 'We think that in-court court reporters have shown them- selves to be the best produc- ers of accurate transcripts,' says Frank Addario. government is now proposing. "The typing-pool model doesn't work," she says. "A lot of the things we do are fairly com- plex. . . . If you don't have access to being able to look at docu- ments, to ask questions, to get spellings of witnesses' names, it's a problem." Neeson says CSRAO is ask- ing for the support of the On- tario Bar Association, Crimi- nal Lawyers' Association, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, other legal organizations, and the general public to block any attempts by the province to move to a typ- ing-pool system. CLA president Frank Ad- dario says the government has yet to approach the organization regarding its plans for court re- porting, "because they claim it's part of contract negotiations." He says the CLA's position is: "The single determinant for the government ought to be main- taining or improving the accu- racy of transcripts and the speed with which they're produced. "We think that in-court court reporters have shown themselves to be the best producers of ac- curate transcripts," continues Addario. "So I'm very worried that transcript production is go- ing to be contracted out to in- experienced typists who've never been in a courtroom, don't un- derstand the terminology, and are unable to seek clarification of things that are not said clearly because they're not present." A previous attempt at au- tomated court reporting hap- pened in 1994 when NDP fi- nance minister Floyd Laughren court reporters came up with a plan to save $60 million by slashing the jobs of half of the province's 720 court reporters. Neeson says that plan was scrapped after results from pilot projects showed the system didn't work. Addario calls the pi- lots "a disaster." Neeson says British Colum- bia has adopted a typing-pool model for at some levels. She says private companies there are often con- tracted to compile transcripts from tapes. "What also happens is, those who can afford it will bring in their own court reporter," says Neeson. "So you get a bit of a two-tiered justice system hap- pening there." The CLA last week wrote to the ministry regarding the re- view of court reporting, and Addario says he's confident the ministry will consider the asso- ciation's advice. LT CLARIFICATION A story in the Dec. 8, 2008 issue of Law Times concerned a light-hearted debate during an Ontario Bar Association section program on Nov. 6. The debate, on the topic of "Be it resolved that women make more effective mediators," was conducted on traditional lines, with teams assigned their positions, and was in- tended to be entertaining and thought-provoking. In particular, the quotations attributed to Leslie Macleod of Leslie H. Macleod & Associates about women making more effective mediators were made in this vein and were not intended to represent her personal views. Law Times regrets if the context for the debaters' comments might have been misconstrued and apologizes for any harm caused. Senior Litigation Counsel Constitutional Law The Canadian Constitution Foundation seeks part-time or full-time Senior Litigation Counsel for our constitutional litigation and legal research work. The successful candidate can work from any city in Canada, reporting to the Executive Director in Calgary. Senior Litigation Counsel will review and assist with the litigation work and legal research carried out by the Foundation's other in-house counsel, pro bono counsel, and law students. She or he will also assign legal research on constitutional topics to law students and lawyers, and review this work. Further, Senior Litigation Counsel may, if interested, assume direct responsibility for fi les, and appear in court. The ideal candidate will have between 10 and 20 years of litigation experience. Applications from retired or semi-retired litigation counsel, and from retired judges, are welcome. Salary to be negotiated, commensurate with experience and the Foundation's non-profi t status as a registered charity. Resumes with cover letter may be sent, in confi dence, to JCarpay@CanadianConstitutionFoundation.ca.

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