Government did ‘all it can’ to stop secret screening of jurors: McGuinty – Yahoo! Canada News
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Mon Jun 15, 5:39 PM
By Keith Leslie, The Canadian Press
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TORONTO – The Ontario government “has done all it can” to stop Crown prosecutors and police from secretly – and illegally – investigating prospective jurors, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Monday.
Attorney General Chris Bentley sent out a directive last month telling Crown attorneys and police to stop investigating people who may be called for jury duty beyond the usual criminal background checks.
“This is unacceptable . . . and in fact is against the law,” said McGuinty.
“We expect that our police and our Crowns will respect the law.”
However, McGuinty admitted he was unaware his government had sent out a virtually identical directive over three years ago – which did not stop some Crowns from asking police to find out personal information about people who may serve on a jury.
“I didn’t know we’d done something three years ago, but I certainly know about this time,” McGuinty said when questioned about the first order issued in March 2006.
“I think we’ve done all that we can: we’ve told the police and the Crowns: ‘you can’t do this and you’ve got to stop doing it.”‘
Crown attorneys in at least three Ontario cities – Windsor, Barrie and Thunder Bay – have been caught recently asking police to look beyond the allowed criminal checks when investigating potential jurors.
They’ve been asked to report back on such things as whether or not the potential jurors like police.
Bentley said his office was rewriting the manual for jury selections for court services staff, but he didn’t want to speculate about whether or not prosecutors and police in other Ontario cities had illegally investigated jurors.
“We’re going to keep looking (and) whatever we find we’re going to disclose,” he said.
Bentley said he didn’t know why the 2006 order prohibiting the jury investigations had been ignored by some Crowns, but added that question would be part of his ministry’s investigation into what happened.
Interim Opposition Leader Bob Runciman said Bentley should be taking some kind of action to discipline the Crowns who violated the directive.
“They’ve got to send a clear, strong message that this is not something that we’re going to allow to occur,” he said.
The Criminal Lawyers’ Association said it wants the government to move quickly to find out the extent of the problem.
“In what cases did it occur, in what jurisdictions did it occur and can we recreate an accurate history of what took place so that information can be put in front of the courts or the privacy commissioner to evaluate what remedies should be made available,” wondered association president Frank Addario.
“The longer it takes to reveal what occurred and where it occurred, the more suspicion and doubt will set in around the process.”
Judges have already declared mistrials in two cases because of the jury probes, which the government initially said last month were limited to one courthouse in Barrie.
More mistrials are a possibility, warned Addario.
“It could happen,” he said. “I think it’s too soon to say what the remedy could be because we don’t know what information will be before the court that eventually decides that issue.”
The Ontario Provincial Police is reviewing its policy on jury background checks, said Insp. Dave Ross.
“What the review is looking at is our policy and procedures specifically as they reflect to giving information to Crowns – at their request – on prospective jurors,” said Ross.
“Hopefully the review will be able to tell us if this was going on in any other areas that we’re responsible for other than Simcoe County (which includes Barrie).”
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian announced Monday she was sending a survey to all 54 Crown jurisdictions to determine the nature and extent of the jury checks over the past three years since they were first told to stop the practice.
Cavoukian will also a team of investigators to Windsor, Barrie and Thunder Bay to interview police who provided the information on jurors to the local Crown attorney’s office.
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