Lawyers, advocates mull future of jury system

Experts worry about rise in judge-only trials as virus worsens backlogs

CALGARY—The president of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers is worried the justice system will try to delay jury trials as it deals with COVID-19 at the expense of the rights of those accused of a crime.

Bill Trudell said a number of provinces, including Ontario and Saskatchewan, are postponing jury trials in order to deal with a growing backlog of cases after COVID-19.

“I hope that there is an encouragement to restart jury trials. I hope we don’t get used to not having jury trials,” Trudell said.

“I think a lot of people might say, ‘Hey, let’s go judge alone because it’s more efficient and more expeditious and expedient,’ and that’s a terrible way of looking at it.”

Trudell said he’s worried there will be more pressure as courts start to make plans for the future.

“What’s going to happen when we get rolling again, right? And there’s these backlogs,” he said.

“Judges are going to be trying to do their job in the best way they can and one of those ways is to cut down on jury trials, but there must be a real strong principled resistance to it.”

Alberta’s top trial judge said the court has suggested to both the prosecution and defence that there may be ways to consider having a trial before a judge alone instead of a jury to reduce stress on the system.

“In these difficult times ... I’m hopeful that consideration would be given by the bar to bringing down the number of jury trials we have,” said Mary Moreau, the chief justice of Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench.

Trudell said there aren’t many defence lawyers who would be interested in that.

“It’s the accused’s right to have a jury trial. I don’t think you’re going to find that many defence counsel that think expediency should trump the jury system.”

A juror advocate is worried Canadians will balk at serving on juries when pandemic restrictions loosen.

Mark Farrant of Toronto became an advocate after he developed post-traumatic stress disorder following a 2014 murder trial in Ontario and founded the Canadian Juries Commission.

He has written letters to justice ministers across Canada expressing his concerns, asking for increases in daily compensation for jurors and making sure there’s enough physical distance between jurors.

Farrant said many people will come out of the pandemic with extra debt, a loss of jobs and possible health problems. He said if action isn’t taken, there will be a lack of people willing to do their civic duty.

“Jury duty will remain and important pillar of the justice system,” he said. “That’s not going to go away and we need to have solutions in place to meet what I think will be a crisis in the courts.”

Trudell agrees something needs to be done to make the jury experience is better.

“If it’s the most important function in a democracy, then they should be paid a fair wage, not so that everyone wants to do it because they’re going to make money, but because it’s fair,” he said.

RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazil is emerging as potentially the next big hot spot for the coronavirus amid President Jair Bolsonaro’s insistence that it is just a “little flu” and that there is no need for the sharp restrictions that have slowed the infection’s spread in Europe and the U.S.

As some U.S. states and European countries moved gradually Monday to ease their limits on movement and commerce, the intensifying outbreak in Brazil — Latin America’s biggest country, with 211 million people — pushed some hospitals to the breaking point, with signs that a growing number of victims are now dying at home.

“We have all the conditions here for the pandemic to become much more serious,” said Paulo Brandão, a virologist at the University of Sao Paulo.

Brazil officially reported about 4,500 deaths and almost 67,000 confirmed infections. But the true numbers there, as in many other countries, are believed to be vastly higher given the lack of testing and the many people without severe symptoms who haven’t sought hospital care.

Some scientists said over one million in Brazil are probably infected. And the crisis could escalate as the country heads into winter, which can worsen respiratory illnesses.

The country’s Health Ministry said that the system for accounting for deaths is “robust” and has captured all but a few cases.

Worldwide, the death toll topped 210,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The number of dead in the U.S. surpassed 55,000 — close to the 58,000 U.S. troops killed during the Vietnam War. Italy, Britain, Spain and France accounted for more than 20,000 deaths each.

Bolsonaro has disputed the seriousness of the coronavirus and said people need to resume their lives to prevent an economic meltdown. But most state governors in the country have adopted restrictions to slow the spread and pushed people to stay at home.

In mid-April, Bolsonaro fired his popular health minister after a series of disagreements over efforts to contain the virus, replacing him with an advocate for reopening the economy. Residents protested, leaning out their windows to bang pots and pans.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse or too overwhelmed to take any more patients.

Officials in Sao Paulo — the largest city in South America, in a tightly packed metropolitan area of over 21 million residents, many of them living in poverty — have issued death certificates over the past two weeks for 236 people who succumbed at home, double the number before the outbreak, according to the SAMU paramedic service.

Manaus, an Amazon city of 1.8 million, recorded 142 deaths on Sunday, the most yet, including 41 who died at home.