TORONTO – Probation officers are part of law enforcement and therefore ineligible to sit on juries, even if relevant legislation does not specifically mention them, an Ontario judge has ruled.
The finding comes in the case of a woman known as jury panel member No. 407, who asked the court to excuse her from jury duty. She said her work as a probation officer with the Ministry of the Solicitor General could result in a potential conflict with a client.
In his ruling, Superior Court Justice Gregory Ellies in North Bay, Ont., rejected the conflict scenario, saying it would be unlikely to arise. Panel members, the judge said, are told who is involved in a trial and asked if they know any of them.
“In this way, the panel member would be able to avoid sitting on a jury in which she has a conflict with a client,” Ellies concluded.
At the same time, the judge said there was in fact a valid reason to excuse her – her role as a probation officer.
Ontario’s Juries Act says people “engaged in the enforcement of law” are ineligible to be jurors. The legislation lists several examples, including jail wardens, sheriffs and police officers. It does not mention probation officers.
However, Ellies said the powers and duties of probation officers are similar to those of correctional officers. For example, he said, the former monitor offenders in the community while guards monitor them in custody. It is clear, Ellies said, that the duties of a probation officer “include law enforcement.”
Ellies also turned to Canadian jurisdictions to see how they deal with the issue and concluded they provided backing for his interpretation. In particular, he found equivalent jury rules in Manitoba, Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Yukon “explicitly disqualify” probation officers from serving as jurors.
The language of those statutes, he said, shows that other provinces consider probation officers to be engaged in the administration of justice of which law enforcement is at least a subset, Ellies wrote.
“Based on the assumption that probation officers perform similar supervisory and enforcement duties throughout the country, it is reasonable to conclude that probation officers in Ontario, like those in Alberta or Nova Scotia, are involved in law enforcement such that it would disqualify them from serving on a jury,” Ellies concluded.
“Therefore, I have granted the request of jury panel member No. 407 to be excused from attending for jury selection,” Ellies said. “Her name should also be removed from the current jury roll.”