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Page 6 May 8, 2017 • Law TiMes www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Framework shifts At times, there can be a tendency in journalism to add drama and f lourish, as well as action phrases, to the written word. That being said, it would be fair to say that when the SCC ruled in R. v. Jordan, a traditional legal framework was shattered. The ruling referred to a "culture of complacency towards delay that has pervaded the criminal justice system in recent years." Therefore, dismantling it meant creating a presumptive ceiling. Stretching beyond the ceiling meant trouble. Law Times reports this week that the unavailability of a defence lawyer because of scheduling issues will not necessarily count against an accused in assessing whether the right to a trial in a reasonable time has been breached, according to a recent Superior Court ruling in Cornwall, Ont. The matter involved three people accused of trying to smuggle Polish nationals from Canada to the United States. The bench is hammering out the terms and conditions that Jor- dan imposed for the entire profession, with Justice Rick Leroy con- cluding that a delay was "institutional in nature." "These accused were caught in the consequence of complacency as to right to trial within a reasonable time cited by Justice Moldaver. A symptom of the poor health of the criminal justice system in this jurisdiction is that we were unable to assign priority status to a serious case with serious consequences for the accused if convicted because the pipeline was/is full," said the ruling. "While judges should account for the reality of institutional de- Methane regulations delayed BY RICHARD CLEROUX T here was a dramatic moment a year ago on the front lawn of the White House in Washington. Then-president Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stood solemnly and in- formed guests and the news media that they had something quite important to announce — something that would affect the lives of Canadians and Americans for generations to come and improve the air we breathe on this planet. Obama said the two countries had reached an agreement establishing tough new regulations to prevent methane gas leakage. Obama said that, when implemented, the regulations would cut methane gas released into the air by the North Amer- ican oil and gas industry by 45 per cent by 2025. The Canadian public is well aware of concerns around carbon dioxide. However, worries about carbon diox- ide are small potatoes compared to meth- ane gas. Most people believe methane gas is a poisonous gas that comes out of back- yard gas barbeques. No. It's not that at all. It's a powerful greenhouse gas that has many times the climate-warming power of carbon dioxide. It won't poi- son you, say Canadian en- vironmental groups. It simply destroys the air on the planet that we live on, slowly and efficiently. Most methane gas comes from oil and gas operations, says Ian Bruce, director of science and policy for the David Suzuki Foundation. He spent two "field seasons" driving 8,000 kilometres around northern Brit- ish Columbia with several scientists from Nova Scotia's Saint Francis Xavier Uni- versity in a truck with a "methane sniffer" mounted on the back testing for methane gas leaks on well sites. They tested leaks in gas compressors, old gas pumps, leaky oil tanks and pipe- lines feeding into gas storage equipment. Gas fracking was also a problem. However, after Obama left office, everything changed. President Donald Trump took over. He has a totally different idea than Obama about methane. Trump didn't see methane gas as dan- gerous to our environment. He repeated the remark on several occasions, which were picked up by American news media. Trump signed an exec- utive order on March 28 delaying Obama's imple- mentation of climate control regulations to 2025, saying it hobbles oil drillers and coal miners. Environmentalists are furious. They are preparing to take Trump to court in the United States in the fall for delaying the new law. Trudeau went along with Trump's two-year delay. Minister of the Environ- ment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, wisely went along with her boss. "There is a regulatory process," McKenna said. "We need to listen to in- dustry." McKenna's remarks were repeated by several Canadian news media including the CBC, which had recorded remarks she made on a conference call back to Canada from San Francisco. She had gone to California to help promote clean air technology with the state of California. Along with Colorado and Utah, Cal- ifornia has been among the leading U.S. states promoting clean air. "Our goal is to take serious action on climate change to reduce emissions, but we need to be doing it in a smart way where we make sure that we are under- standing the perspective of industry and understanding the science," McKenna said in her remarks broadcast back in Canada on the CBC. "We have to listen to concerns of key players." McKenna didn't spell out whether "key players" included Canadian en- vironmentalists. One thing environmentalists find es- pecially disheartening is that methane gas is fairly easy to deal with. Much of it is the result of fracking in the oil and gas industry. Fixing leaky gas pipelines and old gas compressors is another way of dealing with it, as well as the industry improv- ing oil and gas equipment and industry practices. LT uRichard Cleroux is a freelance reporter and columnist on Parliament Hill. His email address is richardcleroux34@gmail.com. lays because counsel's behaviour is constrained by systemic delay issues, to disregard the breach of the accused's rights to trial within a reasonable time feeds continued complacency over delay and rec- ognition that resources are finite." Leroy ultimately ruled to stay human traffick- ing charges against the three defendants over a vio- lation of their Charter rights. Stand by for more inevitable shakeouts from Jordan. LT ©2017 Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or stored in a retrieval system without written per- mission. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. Information presented is compiled from sources believed to be accurate, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. 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Karen Lorimer Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Brown Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gabrielle Giroday Staff Writer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alex Robinson Copy Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patricia Cancilla CaseLaw Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leah Craven Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Phyllis Barone Production Co-ordinator . . . . . . . . .Catherine Giles Electronic Production Specialist . . . Derek Welford The Hill Richard Cleroux

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