The judgment in Jordan causes 1221 queries

Kathleen Frenette

Wednesday, 3 January 2018 00:00

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Wednesday, 3 January 2018 00:00

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1. Daniel Cozak (to the left) ; 2. Guillaume Giguère 3. Mohamed Doudou Traoré and 4. “Angel Daniel “, Michel Mercier, his real name, filed the petition pursuant to the judgment in Jordan. The first two were accused in stories separate from narcotics. The other two were facing charges of a sexual nature, also separate folders.

On July 8, 2016, the supreme Court of Canada gave rise to the judgment in Jordan, a decision which had set strict parameters on the length of proceedings both in the Court of Québec and superior Court. A year and a half after its implementation, in Quebec, 1221 motions were filed by defense lawyers for ” unreasonable delay “, of which 649 in criminal matters.

Of this number, “214 led to a stay of proceedings and 178 were rejected by the court,” meant the person in charge of access to information the office of the Director of criminal and penal prosecutions.

In Quebec city, 14 applications have been submitted since the implementation of the judgment in Jordan and five of them have been granted.

Cozak

One of the more recent judgments in Jordan has been pronounced against the chemist Daniel Cozak, a former professor of the Université Laval, and of his two sons, Charles and Samuel, who were accused of having produced ecstasy in the family cottage located at Lac-Baker, New Brunswick.

In November, because the judge Réna Émond has estimated that delays of 24 months and half were due to the Crown, which exceeded the ceiling set at 18 months by the supreme Court, she pronounced a stay of proceedings.

However, if these delays have been attributed to the Crown, it is primarily the slow pace of the disclosure of the scientific evidence that has been referred to by the judge Émond, who recalled that the drug analysis Service (DAS) of Health Canada had been 22 months to disclose the results of the analyses of 150 samples of substances seized in the Cozak.

Photo courtesy

Me Vincent Montminy

Not ” a weapon double – edged sword “

For the defence lawyer, Me Vincent Montminy, a well-known figure in cases of organised crime, the judgment in Jordan is not a double-edged sword as suggested by some, but ” it requires and order a new efficiency to the judicial system “.

“From now on, all the stakeholders of the system need to redouble its effort and increase the pace, all this without ever doing so at the expense of quality and probity that some of the professions which constitute the need of it,” said the lawyer.

According to him, he should not make it public enemy number one. “It must not be forgotten that the objective of this decision is positive, since it is now necessary to engage all stakeholders in the system to deny the former times, and to ease the judicial process in time and in reports sometimes purely systemic “, he added.

Not a mathematical question

By fixing a timetable peremptory to all and by reducing the exercise of the rights of the accused at the centre of the debate, few lawyers have today want to justify their inaction or their immobility in front of the Court.

However, for Me Vincent Montminy, the process is not “a mathematical skill-testing question” as the accused or observers uninformed might be tempted to believe by summing the delays generated since the filing of the charges.

“The exercise request, on the contrary, a careful examination of all the minutes, of all appearances to the Court, and a decortication careful in the allocation of time to one or the other of the parties “, he explained to the Journal.

For him, the folder of Cozak (other text) is a case that illustrates the situation very detrimental to the accused inmate, to cope with the heaviness of the judicial system without hope for an outcome that is reasonably close in time.

“Legitimate requests that need to know answers quickly and efficiently, and the “habits” of possible participants in the system must be corrected and reviewed, ” he said.

Beneficial

According to him, the implementation of the plan Jordan is beneficial to all, provided to revise the old methods.

“With this new vision, we will finally rid us of the slowness of the judicial system. It will, however, remain to adjust the heaviness of the procedures paper, the dogma of the copies in double, triple and even more, and the prehistoric famous fax machine and its precious bill of receipt, all irreconcilable with the computerization of services, the virtual currency and the widespread use of the advantages of social networks “, he concluded.