Justice committee  Well, to your point, Mr. Maloney, the situation is exemplified by a recent trial that was done by Zoom, a public trial in the civil justice system, Fabrizi v. Chu, and there was a huge issue of credibility. Who saw what? Who recalled better? The case was 12 years old when it was

Justice committee  Yes, sure.

Justice committee  Through you, Madam Chair, merci, Monsieur Fortin. The issue of whether the trial is remote or in person is equally affected by the fact that judges who have general jurisdiction have to be deployed for criminal cases first. Otherwise cases get stayed if they've taken too long t

Justice committee  I'm proposing a conversation between different branches of government. The courts are not always right. The Jordan decision was well-intentioned, but it's adding huge problems because courts of general jurisdiction, or trial courts, have to then give priority to criminal cases.

Justice committee  Definitely the Zoom hearing for matters that are based on a paper record are ideal because you can't just make written arguments on affidavits and then have the judge pop out a decision. The exchange between bench and bar is very important, especially when there may be some impac

Justice committee  That's an excellent question. To Ms. Hardie's point and her reference to Justice Lynch, a lack of decorum is a serious problem, and so is the ability to assess credibility fairly, where credibility is often the essence of how any case, criminal, civil, family or child protectio

Justice committee  Absolutely. Not everybody is equipped with a grand computer room and multiple screens. Some are calling in from their phones, and that depends on the kind of phone they have. This creates an inequity. We would never want a witness to be more likely to be believed just because t

Justice committee  Self-represented litigants, as much as it is their right to proceed without counsel.... That raises issues of the cost of legal services, which is another matter. We can talk about a duty counsel, and so on. It is a serious problem. In fact, right now, it is leading to great back

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good morning to you and members of the committee. It's an honour and privilege to be asked to appear before you today to address the committee on the specific issue of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the judicial system in Canada, especia