A Saskatchewan senator is calling on the federal government to fill superior court judge vacancies as a way to combat court case delays across the country.
There were 51 vacancies for federally appointed judge positions as of Sept. 1, according to the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada website. Two of the vacancies were in Saskatchewan.
“If the federal government wants to do something right now to act, they don’t have to wait. This is something that’s totally in their control. They need to fill those judicial vacancies,” said Sen. Denise Batters, a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.
READ MORE: Judge shortage means some trials taking 2.5 years to be heard
The committee hosted a public hearing in Saskatoon on Thursday that focused on how to combat delays in the court system. It released a report last month that found the national median time from when a charge was laid to a final resolution was 123 days in 2013-14. For a homicide, the median time was more than a year.
“The time to act on court delays is now, we can’t afford to wait because justice will suffer,” Batters said.
A final report on how to address court delays from the committee is expected early next year, after the group holds more public hearings across the country, Batters added.
To keep cases moving at a reasonable pace in Saskatchewan, court rooms are sometimes quintuple booked, according to Kelly Kaip, the Saskatchewan Crown Attorneys’ Association president, who spoke to the committee.
“We are committed to the proposition that obviously things must move forward in a timely fashion,” Kaip said after delivering her submissions to the group.
“Justice delayed is justice denied, not only for an accused person, but also for victims and witnesses and also just the general public.”
READ MORE: Supreme court creates new timely-trial framework
The committee also heard from Saskatoon police Chief Clive Weighill, who said that local cases involving break and enters, drug trafficking, as well as armed robbery, were on average complete in less than seven months.
Weighill stressed that more investment targeted on social issues and youth crime would help ease the caseload for the provincial and federal courts.