Bill Introduction

Bill 204, Justice System Monitoring Act

March 10, 2011

Mr. Anderson: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to introduce Bill 204, the Justice System Monitoring Act, on behalf of my colleague from Calgary-Fish Creek.

Mr. Speaker, there’s a famous saying: justice delayed is justice denied. Too often when it comes to serious crimes, victims’ suffering is compounded by long, drawn-out court cases. In the rarest cases in which innocents are charged, every extra day it takes to clear their name is a travesty. While the Criminal Code is a federal matter, this province is responsible for administering justice. Simply put, Alberta’s Justice department needs to do a better job of ensuring that court cases are handled in a reasonable amount of time. It is not only victims that suffer from delays; our remand centres are overflowing and prosecutorial staff are overworked.

Something practical and tangible needs to be done. As with most things, the first step towards making improvement is understanding the problem and then measuring your progress. Bill 204 would mandate the Justice department to track and present statistics on various measures of efficiency, including length of time from laying a charge until verdict, total time of court hearings in a case, length of time between reporting an offence and laying a charge, number of delays exceeding three months, number of prosecutors involved on each file, number of adjournments granted, number of trials that begin on their designated day, approximation of costs of delays in terms of peace officers and prosecutors as well as witnesses, victims, and jurors.

While respecting the personal information of those involved, this bill will cast light on our justice system and better enable all Albertans to understand where the efficiencies in the system are. It will also provide a baseline from which the government can tangibly report progress. The ministry will have six months after the calendar year-end to present a report online providing the statistics outlined in the act. If the House is not sitting, the report must be tabled within 15 days of the next sitting.

These reasonable measures will ensure that the public, the House, and the Minister of Justice are all aware of the state of our justice system and that there is an ongoing dialogue about where improvements need to be. Victims of crime as well as those falsely accused deserve verdicts as swiftly as possible. Bill 204 is an important step in that direction.