Ontario expected to announce resources to speed up Ottawa courts
Posted Jan 25, 2017 06:39:17 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — Attorney General Yasir Naqvi is scheduled to make an announcement today at police headquarters and it’s expected to address delays in the court system that have begun causing some criminal charges to be stayed.
Charges were stayed this month against a teenage boy, accused of sexually assaulting a little girl in a home daycare when she was three years old, because the case had been in the courts for 21 months. A recent Supreme Court ruling deemed that trials should be completed within 18 months.
Postmedia reports, the staying of charges has left the little girl’s mother feels betrayed by the justice system. She tells the paper that she almost feels she and her daughter would have been better off not coming forward at all, to save her daughter having to testify in detail about the sexual assault.
The sexual assault case is one of at least three where charges have been stayed because of the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Jordan.
Ontario has previously announced plans to address court delays and bail reform in the province. Wednesday’s announcement from the Attorney General is expected to offer further details.
