Five years after COVID-19 public health measures created massive backlogs in Canada's justice system, an Ottawa lawyer warns that judicial delays have reached a critical breaking point in the nation's capital.
Institutionalized Delays at Elgin Street Courthouse
Mark Ertel, a local criminal defence lawyer with 33 years of experience, states that delays have become deeply institutionalized at the courthouse on Elgin Street. According to Ertel, what were once rare occurrences have now become standard practice, with criminal trial dates routinely being set dangerously close to the limits established by the Supreme Court of Canada's landmark R v. Jordan decision.
The Jordan ruling established that anyone charged with an offence has the right to be tried within a reasonable timeframe, setting specific numerical ceilings: 18 months for Ontario Court of Justice cases and 30 months for Superior Court of Justice cases. When delays exceed these limits, charges must be stayed unless the Crown can provide justification for the extended timeline.
Alarming Statistics Reveal Systemic Failure
Ertel's concerns are supported by recent data from Statistics Canada showing that the majority of criminal cases in Ontario now end with charges being withdrawn, stayed, dismissed or discharged. The situation has deteriorated significantly over the past decade, with approximately 55 percent of adult criminal court cases in the 2023-2024 period resulting in stays or withdrawals.
This represents a dramatic 13 percentage point increase since the 2013-2014 period when Statistics Canada began tracking these cases. Compounding the problem, Ontario does not systematically track why these charges were withdrawn, stayed, dismissed or discharged, despite recommendations from the province's auditor general to implement such monitoring.
Human Cost of Judicial Backlogs
The consequences of these delays extend far beyond statistics, creating what Ertel describes as a fundamental violation of accused persons' rights. "That's a lot of delay for somebody who's probably waiting in jail without bail to have their trial," Ertel told the Ottawa Citizen.
He emphasized that "Jordan ceilings were never supposed to be the goal of the justice system, but right away those Jordan ceilings became the new normal. If there was really a presumption of innocence, and people really guarded the presumption of innocence with any kind of serious consideration for the accused's rights, we should not have a system where people sit in jail for two years waiting for their trial to be held. You can't give back two years of their lives."
Ertel identifies multiple factors contributing to the crisis, including court staff "stacking" too many cases in single courtrooms and the Elgin Street courthouse being physically inadequate to handle the volume of cases requiring hearings. He warns that without immediate intervention, the situation will reach a crisis point, predicting that "there's going to be a big reckoning coming soon" for Ontario's justice system.
