Feds appoint 7 new judges in Ontario

The federal government has appointed seven new judges in Ontario.

They include a former criminal lawyer, a former Crown prosecutor and a former counsel to a child welfare agency.

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The appointments come as the justice system deals with vacancies on the bench and pressure to tackle systemic court delays.

In July, five men accused in an alleged multimillion-dollar fraud scheme had all charges against them stayed because of a shortage of judges in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

In that case, a judge attempting to set a trial date for the accused said they couldn’t come before the courts until at least January 2019 _ a date that would violate a Supreme Court ruling that set firm time limits between when charges are laid and when a matter comes to trial.

The men filed an application seeking to have their charges stayed and a judge ruled in their favour citing a lack of resources in the Superior Court.

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The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada said that as of Aug. 1 there were two vacancies on Ontario’s Court of Appeal and 18 at Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice.

The latest appointments fill some of those vacancies.

Justice Alison Harvison Young will move from the Superior Court to Ontario’s Court of Appeal.

At the Superior Court level, one of the new judges is Justice Breese Davies, a criminal lawyer involved in several high profile cases, and another is Justice Suranganie Kumaranayake, who practised in child protection for nearly 16 years.