Survivors of Intimate partner violence Continue the federal government, saying that their rights as a charter have been violated due to arrears in the judicial system allowing the attackers to walk freely without having to be judged.
The declaration made to the Federal Court of Canada alleges on Monday that the complainants were denied justice by the government adhering to strict deadlines on criminal procedures set by a decision of the 2016 Supreme Court of Canada.
Although Jordan’s decision called S0 was supposed to protect the constitutional law of the accused to be judged within a reasonable time, the survivors and the lawyers behind the trial claim that the attackers took advantage of the deadlines and started to abuse their partners.
“We have a crisis,” said Cait Alexander, a plaintiff and founder of end violence Everywhere while announcing the trial before the Supreme Court in Ottawa on Monday.
The decision of Jordan imposed “an alleged ceiling” of 18 months between the accusation and the real or planned end of a trial before the provincial court, and 30 months before higher courts.
With the exception of “exceptional circumstances”, exceeding these limits was judged by the Superior Court of the country to break the Canadian Charter, which requires that criminal defendants “be judged within a reasonable time”.
A suspension of procedure has been considered a “minimum remedy” for such a violation that a defendant should prove is due to an “unreasonable” delay of the crown prosecutors.
The exact “reasonable” meaning was not clear until the High Court’s decision in RV Jordan.
Alexander – who testified before the deputies in the House of Commons Regarding the abuse she suffered in the hands of her ex -girlfriend and the need for reforms and protections for survivors – said that multiple accusations had been suspended due to legal delays, and the only punishment that his attacker received was a peace bond.
Her fear of new abuses prompted her to leave Canada for Los Angeles, where she still lives.
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Alexander’s statement and more than a dozen other complainants include multiple allegations of criminal procedures suspended due to delays, sometimes just before a trial begins. Other applicants say that they are constantly living in fear that accusations against their alleged attackers will not continue for similar reasons.
The Canadian press reported last November that an examination of provincial and territorial statistics shows that more than 400 criminal cases have been rejected, remained or withdrawn as a result of challenges in Jordan since the beginning of 2023.
Among the accused were some accused of sexual assault, exploitation of children, fraud and drug trafficking; Murder cases have also been expelled in previous years.
Legal demand suggests that 30% of criminal cases of violence of intimate partners are suspended following challenges in Jordan, and that only five percent of these cases actually lead to convictions.
The complainants call on the government to accelerate the resources of the courts across the country and to engage in the reforms of criminal justice which protect survivors from violence between intimate partners.
This could include the mandate that the deadlines for Jordan should not apply in the event of sexual assault or violence between intimate partners, and ending the ability of violent offenders to be released on bond.
“The accused have chosen to remain complacent and allow the crisis of the criminal justice system to worsen,” said the declaration, referring to the Government and the Attorney General of Canada.
“Defenders know, or should know that their lack of action and emergency to adopt legislation to guide questions related to Jordan’s law has seriously and negatively had an impact on the lives of individuals victim of (sexual assault and violence between intimate partners).
“The complainants continue to live in communities alongside not only their authors, but other people accused of severe violent crimes against them – in constant physical and mental fear.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said he was still considering the next steps on how to react to legal action and refused to comment more.
Experts and defenders of survivors have told Global News that the fight against the arrears of courts and personnel deficits should be a priority for governments seeking to reduce the violence of intimate partners.
“The attackers must be held responsible for their actions, and we must ensure that the judicial system and the judicial system are appropriately facing the volume of cases in the courts of this country,” said Mitzie Hunter, a former minister of the Ontario cabinet and the current president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Canadian Women’s Foundation, in an interview of last year.
“Women are very clear that they want their business to be heard and that they want the authors to be responsible.”
The questions highlighted in the trial were raised by judges of the Supreme Court dissident in the Jordan case in 2016, who warned the fixing of strict deadlines for trials “risk thousands of legal stays” and was “false in principle and reckless in practice”.
– with Canadian press files
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