A curious story showed up on the CBC website yesterday, wherein justice minister David Lametti stated that if it looked like pandemic delays were going to cause criminal trials to essentially “age out” of the court system as a result of the Jordan decision – meaning that once they reach a certain point, they are deemed to be stayed because they took too long and have become unconstitutional – that he would introduce legislation to “clarify” how the Supreme Court’s Jordan decision was to be clarified. It’s curious because it seems to be a bit of a made-up issue – the Jordan decision already stated that the 30-month timeline allowed for exceptional circumstances, and we can all agree that a global pandemic is by definition an exceptional circumstance. This isn’t to say that declaratory legislation isn’t a valid exercise, because it can be – but it just seems wholly unnecessary in this case, when there are other ways that the government could be better dealing with the criminal justice system and juries than worrying about the Jordan timelines.

In any event, here is defence lawyer Michael Spratt with some thoughts on the story:

2. There is little reason to think that impacts directly attributable to COVID will result in charges being tossed (or even in applications being brought). The SCC already has considered exceptional circumstances And COVID is clearly exceptional.

— Michael Spratt (@mspratt) July 15, 2020

4. If Lametti really wants to help, he should reduce burdens on the system by repealing minimum sentence, make legal aid more accessible, and stop the criminalization mental, health, addiction, and poverty….. you know the stuff we have been begging him to do.

— Michael Spratt (@mspratt) July 15, 2020

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau joined several other world leaders in signing an op-ed calling for equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine, whenever it becomes available.
• CBSA says they have turned away some 10,000 Americans attempting to cross the border for non-essential reasons.
• Of the thousands still crossing the border, PHAC says that there have been no arrests and few fines related to those who have disobeyed quarantine orders.
• Charities and non-profits are still waiting for some signal from the government on how the student volunteer grant programme is proceeding.
• Statistics Canada is working with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police to figure out how best to collect race-based policing data.
• Delving into the records, the federal government helped organize a WE event on Parliament Hill in 2017, where the PM’s mother was a speaker.
• There are questions about WE’s CFO, and the financial structure of the organization. WE later announced that they were planning a full organizational restructuring.
• Data show that Chinese investment into Canada is continuing to decline.
• Maclean’s profiles Peter MacKay and his bid for Conservative leader.
• Anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Yves-François Blanchet dating back to 1999, which he vigorously denies.
• Jason Kenney has hired his campaign manager as the new VP of the province’s energy regulator, because they’re now brazen about their grift.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks into what the Conflict of Interest rules say about family members.
• Kevin Carmichael looks at how the grocery oligopolies behaved at the Commons industry committee and why the MPs there are calling in the Competition Bureau.
• Carmichael also parses the Bank of Canada’s forward guidance and their foreshadowing of the next two years of economic weakness.
• Colby Cosh looks through the nothingburger of the “Palace Papers” released in Australia, and nevertheless finds some key gems about the overall context.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.