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Vol. 33, No. 4
May 24, 2013
lawyersweekly.ca
Review board chair warning:
New law may backfire on feds
Law firms’
Ottawa tab
down a third
Proposed NCR reform could make streets less safe, says Ontario Review Board chair
CRISTIN SCHMITZ
OTTAWA
CHRISTOPHER GULY
The federal government’s effort
to protect the public from offenders found not criminally responsible for their serious crimes
could have the perverse effect of
ultimately putting more of them
back on the street without having
their mental disorders properly
treated, legal observers warn.
Indeed, Bill C-54, now before
Parliament, very likely will make
“streets less, rather than more,
safe” because it will put more
mentally ill people behind bars
and not in proper psychiatric care
programs, predicts Justice
Richard Schneider, chairman of
the Ontario Review Board.
He and others in the legal and
mental health fields are suggesting the government avoid
rushing through legislation in
response to the recent public outcry against notorious offenders
who were deemed not criminally
responsible (NCR).
The Not Criminally Responsible
Reform Act, currently at second
reading in the House of Commons,
is aimed at protecting victims of
such offenders. But it could result
in some offenders seeking to avoid
an NCR defence, Justice Schneider
Richard Schneider, the chair of the Ontario Review Board, says he is surprised that federal Department of
Justice lawyers didn’t consult boards such as his prior to creating Bill C-54, the Not Criminally Responsible
Reform Act. Paul lawrence for The lawyers weekly
warned, because of a new “
unnecessarily harsh” and “draconian” high-risk accused category.
“Individuals who receive an
NCR verdict are managed and
carefully monitored by a provin-
cial or territorial review board
that places them in an appropri-
ate hospital setting or in the com-
munity, subject to appropriate
terms, to mitigate any risk they
Risk, Page 9
Government spending on the private-sector lawyers who handle
its civil cases plunged 32 per cent
in 2012, continuing a recent
downward trend, internal
Department of Justice documents disclose.
Law firms last year billed the federal government $26.4 million
(including disbursements) for civil
litigation, legal services and
advice — do wn nearly one-third
from $38.6 million the year before.
The tab in 2011 was itself a drop
from 2010, reveal records obtained
under the federal Access to Information Act.
Costs are down partly because
of recent settlements or court
resolutions of large-scale litigation involving Ottawa. The files
include Indian residential school
class actions, and the striking out
of third-party notices against the
federal government in provincial
health-care cost recovery actions
against the tobacco industry.
The main contributor to the
spending decline, however, was a
huge Canadian legal victory last
summer in what The Economist
has dubbed the “biggest trade
battle on the planet.”
Hughes Hubbard & Reed of
Washington, D.C., the top-billing
Big win, Page 27
BUSINESS & CAREERS
How to ace
an interview
Know the company, your
resumé, your strengths
PAGE 23
FAMILY LAW
CIVIL LITIGATION
Tax toolkit for
family lawyers
Evolution of
expert opinion
Aim is to help in thorny
issues such as separation
Concurrent evidence,
pre-trial talks are trends
PAGE 12
PAGE 17
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