SubscribeJustice moves slowly in the province of Ontario. As I write this I’m sitting in a hallway of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, waiting for my session to start. It’s 11:30. Our appointment was for 10:30.
This is the same pattern that we experienced over a month ago when we had the 1st meeting. We waited for over an hour to have 15 minutes before the Justice. In that meeting it was very clear that the Justice felt there was no case, but deffered the hearing because the other lawyer hadn’t seen all the relevant documentation.
We’ll see how today goes. I expect that we’ll be done quickly again, but the wait is mind-numbing!
It makes me wonder why “the system” is so broken. Clearly cases are taking longer and longer to try as the courts seem very backlogged. Is this because there is more volume? Is it because “life today is more complex”? Or is there something else?
I think that it may be the latter. I think that perhaps the legal system needs to be “reset”. I think that the “just” in “justice” is lost in all the books, precidents, laws and loopholes. Let’s face it, the point behind the courts is to assign appropriate punishment for infractions against societal norms.
This sounds simple, but our laws are stale and out of touch with society. Further they are (necessarily) written in complex legalese to (one hopes) properly convey the intent of the law without ambiguity. The unfortunate side affect of using detailed language is that very simple concepts become tombs of words trying to address every concievable misinterpretation. One hopes that all loopholes are addressed, but frequently they aren’t.
Our legal system is ailing. It is faultering under the weight of its own creations. The proof is all around you everyday: the young adult in the ‘states who is jailed for 10+ years for personal marajauana possession compared to the chilld abuser and child pornographer that gets 6 months “house arrest”. Any court system that sees no contradiction with the sentences above is sick and needs help.
Right and wrong haven’t changed. They are pretty simple concepts that everyone understands. Children “get it”. Why do adults need such overhead to realize that childhood understanding?
I call for the return of schoolyard justice! Trail by peers and judgement assigned by peers. Force the peers to use their common sense. Allow society to change as it changes and have that reflected in the courts of the land.
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