In a May 30 news release, the government said the new judges will be added to the Ontario Court of Justice to help alleviate the existing backlog of criminal cases. It put the overall price tag for the hiring at about $29 million.
“Through this investment, we are taking action to ensure the court has the capacity to hear cases in a timely manner,” Attorney General Doug Downey said in the release.
The Ontario Court of Justice encompasses more than 200 locations across the province and hears matters related to criminal law, family law and provincial offences.
Numerous cases, including some criminal matters, have been dismissed in recent years because they have exceeded the Jordan presumptive limits of 18 months for provincial court trials and 30 months for superior court trials.
Chief Justice Sharon Nicklas of the Ontario Court of Justice welcomed news of the additional resources.
“This infusion will be critical in helping the court achieve its vision for a fair, accessible and innovative system that delivers impartial and timely justice, ensuring that all participants are treated with dignity and can take part meaningfully,” she was quoted as saying in the government release.
The government statement provided no time frame for the hiring but noted that the additional money is in addition to the $72 million that the province invested in the court system from 2021 to 2023 to help address the huge backlog of criminal cases that was made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, the Ontario Bar Association (OBA) said the new judges and court staff “will help provide timely justice — key to a fair society.”
“We value the OBA’s dialogue with the AG on increasing & optimizing justice resources in all regions,” it added.
In April, the Federation of Ontario Law Associations (FOLA), which represents the province’s 46 county and district law associations, called on the federal government to urgently increase the number of federal judicial appointments.
“The lack of judicial resources has been explicitly cited by several Superior Court judges as the reason serious criminal allegations have been dismissed,” FOLA said in an April 26 news release. “Each case has sited [sic] section 11(b) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees every person charged with an offence to be tried within a reasonable time.”
In February, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his government was elected, in part, “to get like-minded people in (judicial) appointments,” adding that he would not appoint “some NDP or some Liberal.”
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