Law Times

Page 4 January 30, 2017 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com Progress on JACs, but lawyers say more needed BY ALEX ROBINSON Law Times W hile lawyers laud- ed the diversity of the federal gov- ernment's recent- ly reassembled Judicial Advisory Committees, some say much more needs to be done to fix the judicial appointment process. The federal government only recently named appointees across the country to seven of 17 JACs, including a committee for the Greater Toronto Area and one for Ontario's east and north, which each have seven mem- bers. This came after criticism of the federal government for leav- ing the committees dormant for 14 months. Justice Canada made some changes to the composition of JACs, such as eliminating a position for police officers, and appointed a more racially and gender diverse membership than the committees have had in the past. Sonia Lawrence, an associ- ate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, says she doubts the new JACs will be able to swift- ly appoint judges while imple- menting the kind of changes to the judiciary the government is looking to make. "That's a long-term process of developing, mentoring and engaging with candidates before they're candidates," she says. As the legal community wait- ed for the JACs to be reassem- bled, the number of judicial vacancies crept up to 57 — 14 of which are in Ontario. Lawrence says the success of the new committees in creating a more diverse judiciary will largely be dependent on their commitment to outreach. Lawrence says significant change will come from engaging and recruiting women and min- orities early in the process. "There's something interim about this and it can't necessar- ily solve all the systemic prob- lems that are creating the un- representative judiciary that we have," she says. "But I definitely think it could have an impact and I certainly think it's a better process than they had before." Lawrence hopes the new JACs will function similarly to the provincial Judicial Appoint- ments Advisory Committees, which she says do a lot of out- reach. "The problem has already happened by the time you have the applications in hand," she says. "If you really want to have a diverse set of people on the federal JAC of the federal bench, you need to be going out there and recruiting people." Eldon Horner, chairman of the Federation of Ontario Law Associations, says reassembling the JACs is just the first step in fixing the process and that next the government needs to take a serious look at boosting the judi- cial complement in Ontario. "The long delays in civil trials and the impact of the Jordan decision on criminal trials are showing that we just don't have enough judges to deal with all the cases that are before the courts," he says. Calls for the government to fill judicial vacancies have be- come louder since the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Jordan put new caps on court delays. This has led to more ju- dicial resources being diverted toward criminal cases to make sure serious charges are not stayed, say lawyers, causing even longer delays in civil matters and even cancellations of civil trials. Lawyers say it can take years just to schedule a trial for an average file, and that dates are often set an additional two or three years after that point. Can- cellations have also been coming right before trials start, after tens of thousands of dollars have al- ready been spent, Horner says. The fact that the federal gov- ernment did not reassemble the JACs until more than a year into its mandate exacerbated these problems, critics say. Valérie Gervais, a spokes- woman for Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, said in an e-mail statement that the seven areas the JACs were reassembled in were "critical jurisdictions as determined by the number of judicial vacancies and the case load." "The JACs will immediately begin reviewing judicial appli- cations," she added. "We expect to receive the first round of rec- ommended and highly recom- mended candidates by mid-Feb- ruary." Shelley Quinn, president of the Women's Law Association of Ontario, says that despite the amount of time it's taken to reassemble the JACs, she was pleased to see so many women and visible minorities on them. Of the 49 members appointed to committees across the country, 34 are women. In Ontario's two committees, just three of the 14 members are men. "It made me optimistic that there would be a greater divers- ity of names going forward," Quinn says. While lawyers commended Ontario's two seven-member committees for their racial and gender diversity, criminal de- fence lawyers lamented the fact that no current members of the criminal defence bar were ap- pointed. "There aren't any defence counsel on the list, which is troubling because defence coun- sel unlike judges, police officers and government bureaucrats have an in-depth knowledge of the criminal justice system, how matters move through the criminal justice system [and] the type of judges who would be best suited to adjudicate those issues," says Ottawa criminal de- fence lawyer Michael Spratt. LT NEWS NEWS NEWS Sonia Lawrence says she doubts the new JACs will be able to swiftly appoint federal judges while implementing the kind of changes to the judiciary the government is looking to make. IT'S TIME TO RANK… WHICH DO YOU THINK ARE THE LEADING PERSONAL INJURY BOUTIQUES AND ARBITRATION CHAMBERS? Complete the survey online at canadianlawyermag.com/surveys and make your picks. 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