Ottawa getting more judges and crown attorneys

CTV Ottawa: Reducing backlogs at the court CTV’s Annie Bergeron Oliver reports on a renewed push to clear the backlogs at court.

Ontario's Attorney General said the city of Ottawa will be getting new measures to speed up time to trial and to help overhaul the bail system.

Minister Yasir Naqvi said Ottawa will be getting two new judges, a crown attorney to be embedded with the Ottawa Police Services and a crown attorney dedicated to the bail court and bail system.

These new changes are part of a larger, $25 million dollar a year plan to make the criminal justice system "faster and fairer." Naqvi said the changes, set to be implemented in the coming months, will help resolve criminal cases faster and make more support systems available to low-risk offenders in the province.

"There are too many low risk people in our correctional facilities who are awaiting trial who don't really need to be there but lack the right support and supervision to be out of custody and on bail in the community," Naqvi said.

The Minister made the announcement at a press conference at the Elgin Street Police Headquarters. He was joined by the executive director of the John Howard Society and the Ottawa Police Chief.

"My hope and expectation is that all of this will result in movement of cases in a speedy way so that we can meet the challenges that is laid out by the Supreme Court of Canada," Naqvi said.

These changes come several months after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that found cases in provincial courts should only take 18 months to reach trial, with Supreme Court cases taking up to 30 months. Cases that meet that guideline are not automatically stayed, but the landmark Jordan decision, in which an accused offender had his charges stayed because it took too long to reach trial, has led to other cases being stayed across the country.

In November, the family of Fouad Nayel was devastated when the first degree murder charge against their son's accused killer was dropped. Adam Picard spent 4 years in prison, and was released after the judge said the lengthy delay had violated Picard's right to a trial within a reasonable time.

"We feel like we got left behind. We got stranded by something we put faith into and where is our justice? There's nothing," said Justin Nayel, Fouad's brother.

According to the Attorney General's office, there were about 11,636 total pending cases in the Ontario Court of Justice in the East Region as of December 31st, 2016. 8.1 per cent of those cases were sitting at the 18-month mark.

"This is going to happen to multiple, multiple, multiple families through all the different provinces across Canada and it won't stop until someone puts their foot down," Nayel said.

Other changes announced today include: