The good news for Canada’s provincial courts is public opinion about their performance has improved over the past few years.
The bad news is, they are still getting a failing grade.
According to a recent Angus Reid poll, only 44 per cent of Canadians have “a lot of” or “complete” confidence in the courts.
Perception is an interesting thing. One could argue the courts should be more concerned with doing their jobs than what John and Jane Frontporch think about them. And certainly, courts must operate on the principles of justice, not populist sentiment.
Nevertheless, public confidence is very important. As one of the three branches of government, the judiciary is a foundational tier of our democracy. Without public confidence in the courts, democracy itself is undermined.
As such, court officials hold public confidence in high regard. It is invoked when judges are considering releasing suspects and during sentencing.
While the system undoubtedly needs some tweaking, I think the courts deserve a little bit better and would be willing to bet most people who expressed dissatisfaction have misguided reasons for why they believe the courts are not working.
In the same poll, the vast majority of respondents believed that crime and the severity of crime is either increasing or remains unchanged over time while statistics clearly show an ongoing decline in both for decades now.
That could certainly lead to a perception of the courts not doing their jobs, even though it would be an erroneous conclusion.
In short, people tend to think the courts aren’t working because they’re not penal enough.
Despite people maybe having the wrong reasons, there may actually be good reason to lack confidence in the system.
It is clear that while crime and crime severity is decreasing, the justice system is becoming more bogged down and expensive.
A recent report published by the MacDonald Laurier Institute identifies several systemic problems with the system including: “rising case processing times, a growing population of accused persons on remand pending trial, increasing costs across the board, and a growing number of Canadians unable to afford a lawyer.”
The paper also cites the explosion of offences against the administration of justice, which now account for 20 per cent of charges laid in Saskatchewan, for example.
“There is also a vicious cycle where accused persons awaiting trial end up missing appearances or breaching conditions, which can include minor violations,” the authors conclude. “This spurs further proceedings, which may have little, if any, value for public safety.”
While I found the report compelling, I must admit its source gave me some pause for skepticism. The MacDonald-Laurier Institute is a right-wing think tank, one part of its stated mandate being to promote free-market conservatism. The previous Conservative government amply demonstrated there is little love lost between Conservatives and the judiciary.
Conservatism itself tends to favour vengenance over justice as I have frequently written about.
Also, the lead author on the paper was Benjamin Perrin, formerly Stephen Harper’s hyper-partisan lawyer, who gained infamy by being implicated in the PMO scandal for brokering the deal that saw Nigel Wright pay Mike Duffy’s illegitimate housing expenses.
The fact that Perrin, nor anybody else, was ever held accountable for that horrendous breach of the public trust is a travesty, but not reasonable grounds to discount a well-researched and evidence-based document.
I think the paper makes a good case for a justice system report card, which the Institute promises will be forthcoming in the near future.
We should never be complacent when it comes to improving our democratic institutions.
