All posts by bcjustice

Those Recent Legal News By Ian Mulgrew

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Over the past few days I was reading all these legal news articles on the Vancouver Sun site by Ian Mulgrew and the two articles that kind of got my attention were “Glacial pace of Canadian legal system is an embarrassment” http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Mulgrew+Glacial+pace+Canadian+legal+system/10289593/story.html and “Judge’s leniency for repeat crook ill-advised” http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Mulgrew+Judge+leniency+repeat+crook+advised/10302566/story.html .

Reading these articles kind of makes me wonder again on why when it comes to more mainstream media there aren’t any investigations it seems to document a case from beginning, middle and end in terms of the process. It seems like most of the stories like these are commented on after the fact that everything happens which means nothing will really get fixed as the majority of the public has no real clue as to why it takes so long in the first place.

Example, we always see consumer reporters who do full investigations about companies and how they operate. So why are the media afraid to do the same in these cases? Now obviously you can’t just make up a case to go through the BC legal system to investigate, but I am sure there are plenty of documentation like in my example on just how broken it is.

It is nice to read articles like these though to highlight the points. I like the final quote that Ian Mulgrew wrote at the end of the first article stating “How about the right to a fair, efficient and timely legal system?” Again though, I wonder if reporters like himself will ever take experiences like mine and do a full exposé where all the documentation is there to highlight why it takes so long.

At this point, as a regular citizen I would just assume the reason is there are too many cases to process. While that may be true, it doesn’t show the way cases are being handled and how some people in the system are completely unaccountable in any fashion. Hence, things stay the same.

Why I Don’t Think BC Legal Aid Needs More Funding

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I was reading some articles lately discussing about the topic on how the legal aid system is failing in BC as financially there is not enough money for lawyers to help everyone. As a result, there were some situations such as lawyers being urged to not work on legal aid cases. Some people dub it as a legal aid blackout. Generally speaking, I do not think that BC legal aid needs more funding. Alright, before anyone jumps to conclusion be sure to read my entire post.

As you all may know with my situation, initially I did use some legal aid services. So the immediate reaction would be how could I say it doesn’t need more funding then when a person like myself needed such a service? Think of it like this. If every time to get to work the city stated that you must drive a car through a hazardous road which causes you thousands of dollars in mechanic fees everyday would it make sense to say the solution is to give mechanics more money so that people can afford to get to work?

Or pretend if you were traveling from Vancouver to Toronto for some kind of medical emergency a country says you must first travel west bound, basically through Asia and Europe, as opposed to simply going east within Canada. Would it make sense there to say that the healthcare system needs more money to solve the huge travel expense for people who can’t afford plane tickets for that type of travel? Unless I am crazy, I think everyone would naturally react by saying “Why should I have to go through that thorn filled road with a car to begin with?” or “Why can’t I just fly straight east to Toronto instead?”

So to me, that is the reason why I say the BC legal aid does not need more funding because I think the system itself is broken which causes the crazy financial burden on those seeking justice in the first place. Why aren’t people more focused in fixing the tedious path and logistics of the legal/justice system first? Like with my documented example, surely you can see how inefficient it is both financially and productively. Wouldn’t it make sense to fix that first and stop it from being so expensive or time consuming in the first place?

Rest assured, there are a lot of lawyers and judges that want to do good for people. Likewise, like any other industry there are probably a lot who just care about getting money. From my experience, the road of the court system given to regular people are not designed to be easily accessible for an average person. In my view, that needs to be fixed first. If anything, funding should be used to fix that first and foremost. I am doubtful that it will ever happen in this day and age though.

Opinion of Lying And Perjury In Canada Courts

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I bumped into this old article written by Alan Shanoff at http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/alan_shanoff/2011/01/14/16894621.html who seems to be a trained lawyer who expresses opinions about how lying and perjury is taken in the Canadian court system.

Based on my personal experience, the court hadn’t shown anything to demonstrate that it is taken seriously as well. With the people I have spoken to and reading various articles like these it makes me wonder how such a widespread issue never gets resolved. At the same time, I feel the public is essentially duped into believing that when you take an oath or pledge to tell the truth you will be held accountable if it is clear that one went out of their way to tell a false story.

It’s almost like I have no choice but to agree with the phrase one person told me where things like perjury and lying under oath is only enforced if a judge becomes personally offended. So in a way, it’s almost like the processes of determining perjury isn’t say looking at what was written in an affidavit and comparing it with facts to see who is lying or not per se. Instead, it would be more along the lines of whether or not a judge is emotionally attached to a specific case where the law is then used as a personal weapon based on personal preference should one choose to. In my opinion, that isn’t right.

I don’t know about everyone else, but my initial assumption was that a judge scrutinizes a case from beginning, middle and end where there are two categories to determine. Basically, do they feel anyone is clearly lying to mislead the court which means they need to punish the party for that? At the same time, are there enough facts for a case for them to confidently rule on it? Not punishing contradictions and inconsistencies that are clearly an intent to mislead is essentially telling people that a court is nothing more than a game of creative storytelling, theatrics and a lottery of who you get. Essentially, it encourages a person to keep going even if they are lying. Hence, the clogged up court system with the extreme wait times as well.

Now even from my experience I think I clearly demonstrated that there is a huge discrepancy in terms of a case outcome depending on what judge you get in the BC court system. I know in any other industry that is unacceptable. Example, if a company has an extreme issue of say harassment it shouldn’t matter who is working on shift to follow procedures and take appropriate action. Unless you are telling me it’s procedure to not take lying and perjury as a serious matter in court. That opens up a different can of worms.