Friday, August 01, 2014

"But, but, but ..... Your Worship did you complete high school?"

Good Day Readers:

The next story reminds CyberSmokeBlog of this image:

According to The Toronto Stare article (below) there are Justices of the Peace making significant decisions impacting on peoples' lives with little if any legal education or training. So, naturally, CSB wondered what in the situation in Manitoba?

Not being Philadelphia lawyers it consulted The Provincial (Manitoba) Court Amendment Act (Justices of the Peace. Here's all that was found that seemed to be germane.

Eligibility

41(1) To be eligible to be appointed as a justice of the peace, a person must be at least 18 years old and reside in the province.

Ineligible persons

41(2) The following persons may not be appointed and may not act as a justice of the peace:

(a) a sheriff or bailiff or any other person employed for the service or execution of documents in a civil process

(b) a police officer or any other person employed to preserve and maintain the public peace

(c) a lawyer who holds a practising certificate under The Legal Profession Act

(d) a person who acts as a prosecutor for an offence under a provincial or federal Act, unless it is a private prosecution

(e) a person who works in a penitentiary or correctional institution

(f) a member of

(i) the Legislative Assembly

(ii) a council under The Municipal Act or The City of Winnipeg Charter

(iii) a local committee, community council or incorporated community council under The Northern Affairs Act, or

(iv) a local committee of a local government district under The Local Government Districts Act

(g) a person who is employed as an administrative support person to a person referred to in clauses (a) to (f)


Didn't see any mention of being a convicted felon with a rap sheet as long as your left arm so presumably even CyberSmokeBlog could apply.

Next time you find yourself before a Justice of the Peace ask them if they completed high school.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
Justices of the Peace play vital role in courts - often without a law education

Disciplinary action against two JPs in the past week underscores weaknesses in Ontario's system of appointing people who decide who gets bail - and much more.

By Todd Coyne/Staff Reporter
Thursday, July 24, 2014


Justice of the Peace Alfred "Budd" Johnston, carrying a folder, leaves a July 22 hearing into two complaints of miscounduct against him including the dismissal of 68 provincial offences en masse because the prosecutor was 71 seconds late. (Todd Coyne /Toronto Star)

They preside over some of the heaviest legal caseloads in the country, ruling innocence or guilt as many as 60 times per day.
For most Ontarians, a Justice of the Peace is the closest thing to a Judge they will see. Yet, unlike a Judge, no legal experience or education is required to be one.
They decide who gets bail and whose homes police search. They preside over traffic offences, city bylaw infractions, liquor licensing, trespassing laws, pre-trial hearings and cases covered by the Mental Health Act.
In the past eight days, Ontario Judges have heard two cases of judicial misconduct involving Justices of the Peace.
The first was an appeals court decision that ultimately overturned a traffic conviction.
The higher court ruled that “the march to conviction was unstoppable and the defence was being chastised for wasting the court’s time in insisting on his right to a trial,” the Judge wrote.
The Justice of the Peace was “biased against the defence,” whose case was “being sacrificed on the alter of expediency,” according to the ruling.
In the second incident, a judicial review council is prepared to reprimand a long-standing Justice of the Peace whose admitted misconduct included denying a man a fair trial and throwing out 68 cases en masse because a city prosecutor was 71 seconds late for a hearing.
Neither Justice will lose their job.
Since 1990, when the disciplinary Justice of the Peace Review Council was first established, only a handful of Justices have been removed for misconduct, ranging from sexual abuse of a minor to repeated abuses of power.
When the Ontario legislature returns this fall, the NDP critic for the attorney general’s ministry will consider tabling a bill that would require all 345 of the province’s full-time Justices of the Peace to have some legal background before they’re appointed to the bench.
A similar Bill was tabled in 2012 by Liberal MPP David Orazietti. The Bill would have changed the existing Justice of the Peace Act so that only lawyers who had been practising for five years or more could be considered for appointment as presiding Justices.
That Bill died when the legislature was prorogued in the fall.
“I think having a law degree would be an absolute minimum,” said Jagmeet Singh, the New Democrat MPP for Bramlea-Gore-Malton. “I think a Justice of the Peace should actually be a lawyer, should have that legal background and understand the principles involved and the impact of a decision.”
Often the decisions from the bench with the biggest effects are not the provincial court pronouncements of innocence or guilt, but rulings on whether or not to grant bail before a criminal trial, Singh said.
“A Justice of the Peace makes a decision on the liberty of an individual charged with a criminal offence. That determination is one of the most important determinations in the cycle of a criminal allegation, and it often has a significant impact on whether or not someone will eventually be determined to be innocent or guilty,” Singh said.
“People who are released from custody on bail are more likely to be able to prove themselves innocent than those who are detained in custody,” he added.
University of Toronto law professor Peter Rosenthal said many people who are denied bail will actually plead guilty to a charge just to get it over with, rather than linger in custody until trial.
“My view is that they should be lawyers,” Rosenthal said of the justices of the peace. “They play a very important role in the criminal justice system in many ways, in particular with respect to bail — and that’s a very, very important aspect of the criminal justice system.”
Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur turned down the Star’s request for an interview on this story. The Progressive Conservatives’ attorney-general critic, Sylvia Jones, was travelling and unable to provide comment, according to her office.
In March, the former Liberal attorney general, John Gerretsen, appointed 21 new justices of the peace to the bench, each earning a salary of $123,804 plus pension, benefits and 22 vacation days per year.
Fewer than half of them have a law degree.
The other 12 appointees boast credentials ranging from journalist to paralegal to soccer referee, according to the Ontario government website.
A Justice of the Peace is only required to have a university degree, college diploma or equivalent two-year certificate, plus 10 years of full-time work or volunteerism in any field.
A Judge, by comparison, must have been a practising lawyer for at least 10 years before appointment to the bench.
Anyone with the minimal qualifications can register at one of several regional “base courts” to put their name in the running for a justice of the peace position. The attorney general then compiles a list of top choices and sends it to the Justice of the Peace Appointments Advisory Committee for approval. The committee then reviews and returns the list to the attorney general to make the final decision.

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