WHO HAS THE TIME TO FIGHT CRIME?

For the past decade, a succession of elected officials helped butter
their political bread by announcing crack downs on all manner of crime.

They've targeted child pornographers, marijuana grow house operators,
street racers and even pit bulls.

They've put more cops on street, built more jails, not only to deal
with increasing and increasingly complex crimes but to cope with a
population that has grown by several million people over that time.
Inexplicably, the same politicians have resisted hiring more judges
to hear the inevitable increase in new cases created by their
crackdowns and population growth.

As a consequence, courts across Ontario are struggling with crushing
backlogs, Crowns are increasingly being forced to plea bargain,
police are letting petty criminals off the hook and children and
families are being forced to wait for justice.

"The whole system is off balance," Heather McGee, president Ontario
Bar Association, told Osprey News.

"It's been running thin for so long that all it takes is one major
trial or an incremental increase in population and you lose the
ability to deal with things in a timely and effective manner," McGee said.

The current and looming judicial shortage is a significant part of the problem.

"Our judicial complement has been more or less static for the last
decade," McGee said. "I think the last time new positions were
created was 1999, only two positions were created."

Federal Justice Minister and Attorney General Vic Toews, recently
announced legislation to increase mandatory sentences for gun crimes,
criminalize street racing and raise the age of consent for sex to 16 from 14.

Towes also cancelled plans to hire 12 new judges in Ontario at the same time.

"Those positions have just disappeared without any explanation," McGee said.

Instead of hiring new judges, Toews has launched a review of
Ontario's Unified Family Courts, which hears divorce, custody and
family-related matters, where many of those judges would have landed.

There are Unified Family Courts in Peterborough, Cobourg, Lindsay,
Kingston, Simcoe County, Perth, Cobourg, St. Catharines, Cornwall,
Muskoka, Napanee, Brockville, London, Hamilton, Ottawa and just
outside of Toronto.

There are "very serious backlogs" in some of those courts and waits
of six to ten months in some jurisdictions for mediation services,
which are supposed to help relieve pressure on the

Courts.

"It's a particular problem I know right now in Barrie, where you
almost can't access support services for families going through the
court," McGee said.

Delay means children get stuck living in foster care longer than they
should, parents wait for visitation rights and child support - corners get cut.

"Children sometimes aren't removed from families or are removed from
families without adequate investigation," McGee said.

In January this year, Chief Justice XXXX Smith made an unprecedented
public appeal for government to significantly increase Ontario's
judicial complement.

Justice Smith noted there are five vacancies on the Superior Court
bench (federal judges who hear more serious crimes) and another 17
judges are eligible to retire this year.

She said Ontario courts are "buckling under the strain of our
mounting responsibilities" and warned Superior Court will be
"severely handicapped in maintaining access to justice for members of
the public" without a significant increase in new judges this year.

There are also problems in Provincial Court, which hears less serious
crimes and family matters.

The province frequently resorts to "blitzes" to deal with backlogs in
criminal courts, especially in busy courts like Brampton, said Tom
Hewitt, vice president of the Ontario Crown Attorney's Association.

Such blitzes, Hewitt suggests, mask the need for more resources -
money and staff, to adequately deal with rising and increasingly
complex caseloads.

"It's not the way to keep a healthy system in order," he said.

Again, overcrowded court dockets have consequences including pressure
to cut deals with criminals on sentencing and the risk of criminals
getting off the hook because of delay - a problem Hewitt said is not
new but rather a chronic one.

Because civil trials have the lowest priority, it can take two or
three years to schedule a long civil trial in Toronto.

Meanwhile, Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant (whose crime
crackdowns included the pitbull ban) has failed to fill vacancies for
Justices of the Peace.

"It means, more so in smaller towns and centers than in the big
cities, that people have trouble getting a JP, whether it's for a
bail application, to sign a search warrant," said Conservative leader
John Tory, who called on the province this week to fill those positions.

Cracking down on crime is good politics.

Everyone wants more cops on the beat.

But unless there are more judges on the job, both the province and
the feds are letting us down.