Law Times

Page 6 September 11, 2017 • Law timeS www.lawtimesnews.com COMMENT u EDITORIAL OBITER By Gabrielle Giroday Bail under scrutiny T he ticking clock on court delays imposed by Jordan contin- ues to run, with a range of results. Law Times reports that the Ontario Court of Justice launched a pilot project earlier this month to see whether having judges conduct bail hearings could reduce delays in the crim- inal justice system. Normally, it is justices of the peace who hear bail proceedings — a practice that has drawn the ire of some critics who feel this should be handled only by lawyers. But regardless of who handles the proceedings or their education- al qualifications, the root of delays arguably stems from a variety of factors. In the ruling in Jordan, the SCC noted that "the elements to be considered [in determining inherent time requirements] are the amounts of time reasonably required in processing the charge, retain- ing counsel, applying for bail, completing police and administration paperwork, making disclosure, dealing with pre-trial applications, preparing for and arguing the preliminary inquiry and/or the trial, and trying a case similar in the nature to the one before the court." Many point to bail courts as one source of delays and where system clogging starts. For a problem so complex, creative solutions are re- quired. Part of the change will be ensuring more uniform approaches from courtroom to courtroom in how bail provisions are applied. In the meantime, the Supreme Court of Canada has been clear that "bail provisions are federal law and must be applied consistently and fairly in all provinces and territories," in Antic. "The right not to be denied reasonable bail without just cause is an essential element of an en- lightened criminal justice system," according to the ruling. Striving for enlightment is a worthy pursuit. 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. Law Times disclaims any warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or currency of the contents of this publication and disclaims all liability in respect of the results of any action taken or not taken in reli- ance upon information in this publication. Publications Mail Agreement Number 40762529 • ISSN 0847-5083 Law Times is published 40 times a year by Thomson Reuters Canada Ltd. 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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 Legal training for lawmakers? BY SUSAN DELACOURT N o laws were made this sum- mer, yet it was a busy couple of months for the people we like to call Canada's lawmakers. Proposed tax changes, a f lood of would-be refugees at the border, the gearing up of talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement — these were just some of the issues keeping Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet on the job for the past couple of months. Unlike Parliament, politics and gov- ernment didn't shut down at the end of June. In fact, summer can be a pointed reminder that only a fraction of a politi- cian's job in Canada these days is about making laws. We've seen that in terms of the type of people going into politics — legal train- ing is no longer seen as a prerequisite for becoming a member of Parliament or a prime minister in this country. Paul Martin was the last prime min- ister to have a law degree, just like the four PMs who came before him. That chain of legally trained prime ministers was broken in 2006 and remains so. Nei- ther Stephen Harper nor Justin Trudeau went to law school. In the current House of Commons, 59 MPs list their past occu- pation as lawyer, barrister, solicitor or attorney. This group includes Green Party leader Elizabeth May and departing New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mul- cair — but not Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer. Scheer's degree is in po- litical science. Only one of the candidates to succeed Mulcair, Ontario MPP Jag- meet Singh (said to be a front-runner) is a lawyer. Lawyers are still number one on the top 10 list of occupations of MPs over the whole history of the Commons — more than 1,050 lawyers have become MPs since Confederation, according to Par- liament's own running tally. Farmers are far behind at around 600 and business people account for about 500 of the total number of MPs overall. The proportion of lawyers-turned- MPs in the Commons has actually been shrinking since the 1970s, though the current number represents a bit of a re- surgence. The decline may have some- thing to do with the rise of political marketing in those decades — it became more important for politicos to under- stand business and advertis- ing than the details of how laws were made. Incidentally, journalists are at the number-10 spot, with 189 people giving up their media careers over the past 150 years to seek seats in the Commons. Journalists themselves are divided on whether their training equips them for po- litical careers. But, certainly, it can be argued that politicians are do- ing a lot more communicating these days than lawmaking. This was evident in the past couple of months, as the f lood of Haitian asylum seekers started pouring over the Que- bec border into Canada from the United States. The sheer number of people prompt- ed calls for the government to do some- thing — anything. It was a lot like the situation 30 years ago this summer, as a matter of fact, when a surge of Tamil would-be refugees from Sri Lanka started arriving on Can- ada's shores. The huge volume of new arrivals prompted a recall of Parliament from its summer recess and the passage of a bill called the Refugee Deterrents and Detention Bill. But note, by way of a telling compari- son, how Trudeau's government chose to deal with the summer of 2017's version of a migrant crisis. Rather than recall Parliament or talk about a legislative fix, the government treated this as a com- munications problem. It launched a f lurry of advertising in English, French and Creole, aimed at Haitians in the U.S., and dispatched the Haitian-born MP Emmanuel Dubourg to Miami, to tamp down the idea that Canada's borders were wide open. It may be that when Parliament re- sumes later this month, some of the is- sues that arose this summer will find their way into debates or legislation. But don't bank on it. The answer to every issue in Canada right now is not necessarily found in the law. Politicians may still be tested in the court, but in 2017, it's more likely the court of public opinion. LT uSusan Delacourt is an Ottawa-based political author and columnist who has been working on Parliament Hill for nearly 30 years. She is a frequent political panellist on national television and au- thor of four books. She can be reached at sdelacourt@bell.net. The Hill Susan Delacourt Susan Delacourt

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