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Provincial court moves forward in Grey County thanks to IT department

The county’s provincial offences court has begun working through a backlog of 1,000 trials that were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic
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Grey County's provincial offences court is one of the only court systems in Ontario that has chosen to use an audio court system in order to begin processing cases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stock photo.

Grey County is harnessing the use of technology in order to keep things moving in its provincial offences court (POC).

Amanda Kokas, POC manager for Grey County explained that during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial government adjusted legislation to allow the increased use of technology in the courtroom and in the administrative office.

“The province allowed each court to decide whether they wanted to move forward with audio court or whether they wanted to wait until in-person matters we're possible. We decided to be one of the very few courts in the whole province to move forward,” Kokas said in a presentation to county council on Thursday.

She explained that Grey County’s IT department was able to pair the online meeting platform Zoom with the court reporting system.

“This allows the Justice of the Peace to phone-in, all the defendants to phone-in, and then they sit in a virtual waiting room and they're allowed to be brought into the courtroom one at a time to deal with the matters on-hand,” Kokas continued.

A backlog of cases has been building in POC across the province due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We do have a huge, huge backlog. But, we are hoping that we should be able to clear the backlog by the end of December with no issues,” she said.

According to Kokas, Grey County’s provincial offences court has a backlog of approximately 1,000 trials.

“That's just for part-one trials. We have over 800 part-three trials sitting waiting to be dealt with as well. We're continuing to book as many as possible. However, the defendants also have to be willing to meet with our prosecution or crown to come to resolutions, because as of right now, the only matters being dealt with are those that are resolved, pre-trial matters, or something that is being withdrawn,” Kokas explained.

She added that with the implementation of audio court, three successful court hearings have been held and 200 matters have been heard in the last three days.

In recent years, the issue of delays in the criminal justice system has been the subject of significant and sustained attention. In response, the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Jordan (2016) established a new framework for determining unreasonable delay.

The responsibility of all criminal justice system participants, including judges, prosecutors and defence counsel, to move cases forward without delay was emphasized, resulting in intensified pressure to reduce criminal justice system delays.

Michael Letourneau, director of legal services and Grey County solicitor says that Jordan-related issues in the county are being tracked.

"Our prosecutors are tracking Jordan issues and working to keep all matters moving ahead as judiciously as possible to fulfill the prosecution's obligations under Jordan and working as best we can under the circumstances,” Letourneau said.

Kokas added that so far, the audio court process has received good feedback and the POC plans to continue to operate in this manner until the end of the year.

“We had the Regional Senior Justice of the Peace preside over one of the audio cases,” she said. “He was so impressed by the technology and said he was going to take those comments back to the province and share the process that Grey Bruce has come up with.”


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Jennifer Golletz

About the Author: Jennifer Golletz

Jennifer Golletz covers civic matters under the Local Journalism Initative, which is funded by the Government of Canada
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