A bottleneck of cases in Canadian courtrooms is leading to thousands of violent crimes going untried.
Driving the news: New Statistics Canada data shows that around 10,000 criminal cases in Canada are now being tossed out or paused every year because of a strict 30-month deadline to hold a trial, per The Globe and Mail.
Of the cases that were withdrawn in 2023-2024, there were 525 cases of sexual assault — 13% of all sexual assault cases in Canada — as well as eight homicides.
Catch-up: A 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling established that criminal cases in Canada need to be tried within 30 months, or they’re essentially thrown out. Under that rule, judge shortages and other trial barriers have sent the number of tossed-out cases skyrocketing — hitting a peak of 11,132 a couple of years ago.
Ottawa is planning to table a new criminal justice bill this month that aims to address trial delays, including changes to evidence collection and judge appointments.
Why it matters: When nearly one in every 20 criminal cases is simply being tossed out without a trial, public trust in the justice system is bound to waver, especially when it comes to cases of violent crimes.
Between 2016 and 2023, nearly a quarter of criminal cases in Alberta exceeded the 30-month window, and more than 90% of those cases involved crimes considered “serious and violent.”
What’s next: On Thursday, Ottawa and the governments of Ontario, Quebec, and B.C. will ask the Supreme Court to revisit its ruling that set the 30-month deadline, using a recently expired drug-trafficking case to argue the strict trial rules have become unreasonable.