Court backlog is biting
Cases could be tossed, auditor says Province acting on concerns: Bryant

Toronto Star, RICHARD BRENNAN AND ROBERT BENZIE, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU, Dec. 3, 2003.

Thousands of criminal cases could be tossed out because of serious court backlogs, the provincial auditor's office warns in its annual report.

Jim McCarter, assistant provincial auditor, said yesterday the situation is far worse than in 1990 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Askov decision that people waiting for eight months or more for trial are being denied their civil rights to a fair hearing. About 50,000 criminal charges were dismissed as a result of an appeal of the Askov extortion case, which took more than three years to get to trial.

"In fact, the number of criminal charges pending for more than eight months has increased by more than two-thirds — from 60,000 to almost 100,000 — since our last audit in 1997," McCarter said.

"If you are asking me if there is an increased risk of an Askov type decision, yes I think there is," he said.

The 2002-2003 report covers the time the Ernie Eves' Tory government was in power.

Attorney-General Michael Bryant confirmed that the backlog is a very real concern, and that his ministry is in the process of hiring 20 new judges 50 more prosecutors.

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"These are very serious findings by the auditor. The Conservative government ignored these warnings for 10 years and now we are going to have to clean up this mess," he said.

NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the judicial system is one sharp lawyer away from crumbling. "This could happen any day," said Hampton, who was attorney-general during the Askov controversy.

Hampton said the province should be concentrating more on preventing crime than getting tough on crime and should turn to diversion programs "where you don't drag everything through the court system."

The auditor's report also says the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) is "in grave danger of failing to meet its legislated mandate of enforcing court-ordered child and spousal support payments."

As of March 31, 2003, support payments in arrears totalled $1.3 billion, an increase of more than 8 per cent since the last audit of the Family Responsibility Office in 1999.

McCarter listed this office as his No. 1 concern given that 23,000 women and children are relying on welfare when they are owed more than $200 million because the Family Responsibility Office is not doing its job.

"You have women and children who are depending on these support payments," he told reporters.

"They are depending on the government to help them out, to make sure they get their money. And the bottom line is, regardless of the reason, we are very concerned that unless this thing is fixed the government is not helping them out, they are not getting their money and it is creating extreme hardship for these people."

The auditor's report noted that almost 90 per cent of telephone calls to the office from outside the Greater Toronto Area are not answered.

As well, the Family Responsibility Office's document scanning equipment cannot scan blue ink, but there are no requirements for respondents to fill out forms with other colours of ink.

New Democrat MPP Shelley Martel (Nickel Belt) said the troubled Family Responsibility Office only got worse in 1997 when the Conservative government closed all the regional offices and centralized the service in Toronto.

"This (new Liberal government) absolutely has to do something about FRO. Recipients and their families have a legal right to receive this money," she said.

Since 1994 the number of caseworkers has declined by 20 per cent. Now, a worker has a caseload ranging from 600 to 1,300 or an average of 890 per caseworker. That compares to Quebec and Alberta with 400 and 335 respectively.