Hi,
We have a strong system of criminal justice, but as strong as it is, it’s been slowing down over the years with more and more adjouments and appearances that don’t advance the course of justice. So we launched Justice on Target. We put a target in the window to speed up justice and reduce the number of unnecessary appearances – a 30% reduction. When we achieve that target in four years, it means that half a million accused persons won’t be coming to court every year to simply adjoun their cases.
Half a million. Think of how much room half a million people take up. That’s as many people as in my community of London, and most of Kitchener-Waterloo. Two thousand five hundred every court date. But it’s not just the accused persons, because every adjoument involves a Judge or a Justice of the Peace, a Crown, a Defense Counsel, police officer, court officer, court clerk, court reporter, corrections and of course, members of the public.
What will we do with all of that saved time, by all of those important justice participants? We’re going to use them for the cases that really need them. We’re going to use them for those serious cases. We’re going to use them to make sure that cases move through the system faster. Police officers for example, instead of sitting around in court, will be out preventing crime, apprehending those who commit crime, or conducting necessary investigations. It’s all about strengthening our system of justice.
How are we doing this? We’ve set up in three sites, London, Newmarket and North York. We’ve brought all of the justice participants to the table - every single one of them - to get their best front line advice on how to speed up our system of justice. We’ve got the seven initiatives and we’re now about to roll them out. This is all about making sure that the resources we use in justice are used where we need them the most - on the most serious, the most pressing, the most urgent cases and not on the cases that should be resolved quickly. It’s about making sure that every case gets the time that it needs.
We have a strong system of justice and we’re making it stronger. You can get more details on this website. And tune in, we’ll be coming to a community near you. And by the way, if you want to see how your courthouse is doing, you can tune in and find out what the stats are on your courthouse. Check out the website. We’ve put it all up in the window for everybody to see. After all – it’s your system of justice.