Supreme Court upholds constitutionality of change to jury selection process

The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the constitutionality of a key legislative change to the jury-selection process.

In a ruling from the bench today, the high court said scrapping so-called “peremptory challenges” amounted to a purely procedural change, one that applies retrospectively.

Peremptory challenges are a mechanism that allowed lawyers for either side to dismiss a certain number of prospective jurors without an explanation.

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In January, Ontario’s Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the constitutionality of the decision to drop them.

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However, the appeal court also found that anyone who chose to be tried by a jury before the new rules took effect in September 2019 was entitled to proceed with peremptory challenges, even if the trial begins after that date.

As a result, many jury trials that unfolded in the time between the implementation of the new rules and the appeal court’s ruling could have potentially been overturned.