WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR BAIL SYSTEM? – The federal government enacts the criminal code. The province applies it. The province builds and owns the courts. The province hires the Judges, the Justices of the Peace, the Crown Attorneys and court staff.

“The administration of bail is a provincial responsibility,” the Minister’s office said in a statement provided to CityNews. “Ontario must step up and ensure their courts and prosecutors are well resourced, that provincially appointed Justices of the Peace are applying the law — and when they don’t — provincially appointed crowns need to initiate bail …

YET ANOTHER ILL ADVISED CROWN PROSECUTION OF AN INNOCENT MAN (The Star May 28, 2024)

AFTER TWO YEAR IN JAIL, A JURY TOOK JUST TWO HOURS TO FIND HIM NOT GUILTY. Timothy Clarke Anthony spent two years in jail awaiting trial for a fatal hit-and-run that shocked the Hagersville community. Once his day in court arrived, it took a jury just two hours to find him not guilty, Jacques Gallant …

What strikes me about this article is the prior belief that crimes were committed only by the poor and working class people. It makes me wonder how much the past ideas of eugenics still instruct our beliefs about our criminal justice system. “the case became a sensation because of the killers’ wealth and social status, which ran counter to the then-popular theory that crime was confined to the lower classes. “The murderers went against the grain of popular belief in criminology,” he said. “The idea was that only the poor and working-class people committed crimes, which was the basis behind eugenics.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2024/05/20/leopold-loeb-murder-bobby-franks/?utm_campaign=wp_must_reads&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_mustreads

Do you still believe that police officers always tell the truth on the witness stand? Justice Fergus O’Donnell knows better. – “In a ruling comparing a group of police officers to the golden-era TV buffoon Sgt. Schultz — the “Hogan’s Heroes” prison guard with the catchphrase, “I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing!” — an Ontario Court judge has made a remarkably direct call for honesty from officers acting as witnesses in criminal trials. “TELL THE TRUTH,” Justice Fergus O’Donnell wrote.”

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/ontario/tell-the-truth-exasperated-ontario-judge-compares-police-officers-to-classic-sitcom-buffoon/article_46aaaa77-0b67-51f0-848b-5f33cb001ca5.html

ANOTHER TRAGIC DECISION OF THE TORONTO CROWN ATTORNEYS’ OFFICE TO PROSECUTE A CASE – In the aftermath of the acquittal of Mr. Zameer, another tragic decision, this time to prosecute Lindsay Hewson is revealed.

“The Crown’s decision to prosecute was so questionable that a judge took the rare step of suggesting it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial. But the Crown went ahead anyway, forcing a grieving Hewson, her partner, and the court system into a process that dragged over three years only to end …