Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My name is Brian Gover, and I'm the president of The Advocates' Society. As you've just heard, Mr. Dave Mollica joins me. He is our director of policy and practice.
Thank you for the opportunity to make oral submissions to your committee on Bill C-75. The Advocates' Society has also provided written submissions to complement today's oral presentation.
The Advocates' Society was established in 1963 as a non-profit association for litigators. We have approximately 6,000 members across Canada who make submissions to governments and other entities on matters that affect access to justice, the administration of justice, and the practice of law by advocates. This is part of our mandate.
The membership of our society includes Crown prosecutors and members of the criminal defence bar, so the submissions I make this evening reflect the diverse and considered views of our membership.
The Advocates' Society applauds the government for its willingness to implement reforms with a view to enhancing efficiency within our criminal justice system. The system is, as the Minister of Justice stated in her remarks to the House of Commons on May 24, "under significant strain". This strain is felt by all those who are part of the justice system, including judges, lawyers, litigants, witnesses, and particularly indigenous people and marginalized Canadians living with mental illnesses and addiction who are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, both as victims and as accused persons.
However, The Advocates' Society has concerns about certain mechanisms that Bill C-75 proposes to use to implement these reforms, as they could result in a compromise of the rights of victims and accused persons. In our written submissions, we have highlighted the areas where The Advocates' Society urges the committee to further scrutinize the provisions in Bill C-75. Today I will focus my presentation on two key areas. One is the elimination of peremptory jury challenges and the other is the acceptance of routine police evidence in writing.
With respect to the elimination of peremptory jury challenges, The Advocates' Society is concerned that Bill C-75's proposal to eliminate the peremptory challenge is not the product of careful study or extensive consultation. The Advocates' Society recommends further study and stakeholder input on other possibilities for reform before any measures are taken.
The peremptory challenge provides a mechanism to both the defence and the prosecution to help ensure an impartial and representative jury. It also gives the accused person a certain measure of control over the selection of the triers of fact who will determine his or her fate in a criminal proceeding. The criminal defence bar overwhelmingly believes that the peremptory challenge is a vital tool in protecting the fair trial rights of an accused person, particularly where that person is indigenous or a person of colour. The defence can exercise peremptory challenges to attempt to secure a jury that is more representative of the Canadian population.
The stated rationale in the minister's charter statement for eliminating peremptory challenges is that either the Crown or the defence can use them in a discriminatory way. The possibility that peremptory challenges may be abused should not be used as a rationale for their elimination. Given that peremptory challenges do serve a useful social function, the focus ought to be on reform rather than abolition.
If the concern is with the discriminatory use of the peremptory challenge, then it is the discriminatory use that ought to be eliminated, not the peremptory challenge itself. The few courts in Canada to have considered these issues have held that the Crown's discriminatory use of peremptory challenges violates subsection 11(d) and section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and deprives the accused of the right to a representative jury.
In the United States, when counsel believe that their adversary has used a peremptory challenge for a discriminatory purpose, they can mount what is termed a Batson challenge—based on a 1986 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Batson v. Kentucky—and ask that the judge demand a racially neutral reason for having exercised the peremptory challenge. If the judge finds that the objecting party has made a first impression or prima facie case, the burden then shifts to the party exercising the peremptory challenge to justify its use.
The mere existence of the Batson process has been shown to have a chilling effect on discriminatory conduct in the United States in jury selection. The Advocates' Society recommends further study and consultation with stakeholders on the use and utility of the peremptory challenge. Alternatively, our society recommends adopting a Batson-type procedure in Canada instead of abolishing the peremptory challenge.
The second area is with respect to proposed amendments to the provisions of the Criminal Code dealing with what is termed “routine police evidence” in writing. The Advocates' Society has concerns that these provisions will not enhance efficiency, will infringe on the rights of the accused, and may be constitutionally vulnerable. The Advocates' Society recommends that these proposed provisions be removed in their entirety from Bill C-75.
The breadth of the definition of “routine police evidence” is such that the vast majority of evidence that is provided by police officers in criminal trials would be admissible in writing. This would effectively rob accused persons of their opportunity to test the credibility and reliability of Crown witnesses through cross-examination, which has been uniformly heralded as a central aspect of our Canadian criminal justice system and a constitutionally protected entitlement for those who stand accused of criminal offences.
Cross-examination allows defence counsel to examine potential frailties or inconsistencies in police evidence and determine whether disclosure has been fully made. Uncovering issues with regard to Crown evidence can assist in reducing wrongful convictions. Large-scale restrictions on the accused's right to cross-examine the Crown's witnesses will not necessarily make for a criminal justice system that is more efficient while still fair. We know of no empirical data to support such a claim. It must remain the responsibility of the trial judge in enforcing the rules of criminal procedure and evidence to manage trials such that cross-examination that is abusive, redundant or irrelevant does not take up court time.
In combination with the proposal to eliminate preliminary inquiries in all but the most serious cases, admitting Crown evidence in this fashion would pose a potentially insurmountable hurdle to making full answer and defence. In addition, putting the onus on the accused person to justify their request for the Crown's evidence to be presented orally would likely require the accused to reveal aspects of their defence to the Crown. This may interfere with the accused's constitutionally enshrined right to remain silent in the face of a criminal allegation. The Advocates' Society recommends that clause 278 and other proposed sections dealing with routine police evidence be removed in their entirety from Bill C-75.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for giving The Advocates' Society the opportunity to make submissions this evening. We would be pleased to answer any questions your committee members may have.