Mega-trial
Continued From Page 2
president Paul Burstein, a
Toronto defence counsel, told
The Lawyers Weekly his group
generally supports the reforms.
“No doubt there are those kinks
that will need to be worked out,
and I am sure the appellate courts
will sort it out,” he said. “This is
the kind of thing that most senior
and seasoned defence counsel
have wanted to see in our crimi-
nal procedure for years and
years— that is, the ability to get a
judge involved in managing a
case earlier, and to make binding
rulings on both sides [Crown and
defence] in terms of issues that
are likely to better define the
length of the trial and the course
of the proceedings.”
Burstein added “the one thing
that the feds are going to have to
at some point recognize is...that
efficiency of these trials is a func-
tion of the quality of counsel who
are involved. And if the federal
government wants to keep beg-
garing its commitment to legal
aid funding, then it doesn’t mat-
ter what legislation they cre-
ate — it’s still not going to work.”
The CBA also says it supports
the aims of Bill C- 2.
“There will be some
judges who will not be
enamoured with the
fact that they have to
accept a ruling made
by another judge.
revised rulings [from the case
management judge and trial
judge] will simply lead to more
appeals on the same issues...
[and] the spirit of the proposals
in Bill C- 2 would be defeated if
they lead to an increase in cases
being appealed, which in turn
would lead to more re-trials and
greater costs to the system.”
The CBA also argues that
“mega-trial” should be defined in
the Criminal Code in order to
prevent “overuse” of case man-
agement judges in trials where
they are not required. Those
views are not shared by retired
Ontario Superior Court Chief
Justice Patrick LeSage, who testi-
fied by video link before the Sen-
ate Legal and Constitutional
Affairs Committee studying Bill
C- 2 on June 22.
The criminal defendant in Kentucky v. Outlaw had an uphill battle
Miller
Continued From Page 5
cion and infamy. A lot like
Weiner as Weener.
Shortly after Boehner said he
was glad he wasn’t a Weiner, the
man called Obama (whom, sadly,
no one calls BHO) said, “I can tell
you that if it was me, I would
resign.” But Obama isn’t a Weiner,
by name, temperament or anything else, and never will be. And
isn’t that really the point?
Never mind the silliness of
his conduct, Weiner does not
appear to have done anything
illegal, although the press keeps
mentioning something about
one of his sext recipients being
17. Yet the media have convicted
him via premature adjudication
and sentenced him to career
death. Surely the way he pro-
nounces his name was an aggra-
vating circumstance. So one is
driven to wonder, what if he
were actually prosecuted?
App., 1990), where the defendant appealed a conviction
involving masturbation in a
public toilet at a rest area off
I-90. He was arrested during a
sting operation against gay sexual activity in public, even
though he was not engaged in
anything like that. (The appeal
was allowed on the basis that
police surveillance might have
been too intrusive.)
The defendant obviously had
an uphill battle in Kentucky v.
Outlaw (96-CA-1009-MR, 10
years in prison for kidnapping
and robbery), never mind his long
criminal record. And would a prospective juror in Advance Whip &
Novelty Co. v. Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, 170 A. 95 (Vt.
1934), presume it was another sad
case of the wolf in elk’s clothing?
It turns out that everybody concerned was a bad boy: the court
refused to enforce a contract
between the parties, given that the
agreement permitted the Elks to
use the plaintiff’s gambling equipment contrary to state law.
Finally, by way of contrast, I
suppose, there’s Truelove v. Truelove (488 So.2d 174 (Fla. Dist. Ct.
App. 1986), a divorce case in which
at least one of the parties must
have been using an alias, however
you pronounce it. n
Jeffrey Miller is a writer, translator and professor of law and literature. His latest book is the comic
novel, Murder on the Rebound.
www.jeffreymiller.ca. He thanks
the ABA Journal E-Report for
some of the case names.
DEVLIN GAILUS BARRISTERS AND SOLICITORS
Corob Service Corp
The UVic Law Aboriginal Cultural Awareness Camp 2010 thanks our sponsors
for their generous support for raising awareness of aboriginal culture at UVic Law
Working group on bencher elections
to study nomination process
LSUC
Continued From Page 1
Derry Millar.
In recommending its cre-
ation, Treasurer Pawlitza noted
that LSUC’s elections officer had
suggested the process be
reviewed prior to the next elec-
tion in 2015. As planning for the
next bencher election would
start as early as next year, she
said the working group would
examine, among other things,
the nomination process; candi-
dacy and the region specified for
election; the length of the elec-
tion period, including the voting
period; information on the
progress of voting; campaign
materials and methods; distri-
bution of and access to the email
to launch voting; and “accom-
modation issues relating to
online voting.”
Pawlitza said the review will
include consultations with
benchers, candidates, law soci-
ety committees and other groups
as appropriate. A final report is
to be submitted to Convocation
by June 2012.
