Justice committee  Well, I thought I would leave it to the government, but my suggestion is just to amend the bill to give the judge more jurisdiction to do the things I've recommended: to be able to order the Crown, to give disclosure, and to do the charter motions and exit pretrials. I will leave

Justice committee  No.

Justice committee  I've had exit pretrials. I've explained that in my brief. What happens is that after the preliminary hearing, the judge orally—it doesn't necessarily have to be in writing—tells both the defence and the Crown the weaknesses and strengths of the case. Not every judge will do that,

Justice committee  That's my suggestion, that if there's a concern by the government that the only purpose the preliminary hearing serves is the discovery purpose, then let's give the judges more jurisdiction to do more. I'll give you a practical example; I think I did already. Let's talk about an

Justice committee  It would depend on how the legislation would be worded, but what I am suggesting is that the preliminary judge would have this jurisdiction, and that would be final, and the Crown would not be able to now take this charter application and take it up to the superior court, because

Justice committee  Yes.

Justice committee  With respect to your first question about.... First, I just want to comment on what you said about it not being a fast-food restaurant and also not a banquet. We have to take into consideration that Jordan actually takes into account the preliminary hearing; when the Supreme Cour

Justice committee  The only thing I would add is that I would go back to my point that we can't sacrifice people's rights and procedural protections for the sake of speeding things up. This is not a fast-food restaurant; it's the justice system. Let's make sure that we keep that in mind when making

Justice committee  There is, and I think that's a very important aspect of it for the unrepresented accused. For example, I have been part of a very long fraud trial for which there was a preliminary hearing. A number of co-accused were not represented. These individuals were able to see what the c

Justice committee  No. The preliminary hearing takes place in the Ontario Court of Justice, and once the accused is committed for a trial, the case moves up to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, where the trials happen.

Justice committee  Thank you for the opportunity to address the committee on proposed Bill C-75, and in particular on the preliminary hearing. This is the first time I have appeared before the committee, and it's a pleasure to be here. I have practised as a criminal defence lawyer with Walter Fox

Justice committee  Thank you.