How COVID-19 helped push Ontario's low-tech justice system into the 21st century

OntarioAttorney General Doug Downey is set to announce sweeping new technological changes to the province's justice system today, CBC News has learned.

The COVID-19 pandemic has essentially ground the wheels of justice to a halt in Ontario, adding to an already backlogged court system.

But the health crisis will now help usher in significant technological changes to boost efficiency, including more virtual hearings and a switch from paper to digital files,according to both Downey and the Criminal Lawyers' Association (CLA).

The CLA is Canada's largestcriminal law organization, with about 1,600 members.

"We're just getting started. We really need to modernize the system all the way through. COVIDwas the catalyst that allowed us to move forward 25 years in 25 days," Downey toldCBC News.

Ontario's courts are set to reopen July 6, provided the public health guidelines allow it.

Courthouses and courtrooms will be fitted with Plexiglas barriers, physical distancing markers and hand-sanitizing stations.

But the biggest changes rolling out in the coming months appear to be an increased use of video-conferencing feeds to conduct non-jury trials,some bail applications and to set dates fortrials.

"We have the technology out there. We've spent $1.3 million getting laptops, digital recording devices, VPNs [virtual private networks], allowing trials by Zoom. This is happening now, and it's a matter of expanding," Downey said.

He says about 300 Ontario courtrooms have already been outfitted to hold virtual trials, where a judge would be in the room and lawyers and witnesses could join in remotely.

In the coming months, he says, court files will also start beingdigitized.

As it stands, Ontario's courts still rely primarily on paper records and fax machines to share information.

"When COVIDhit, it really made the state of the justice system explode, because the paper-based system that we've all lived with for so long was just not sustainable," Downey said.

CLA president John Struthers says the association has worked closely with the province to modernize the justice system.

"The phoenix that will rise from the ashes of this situation will be a much better creature," he toldCBC News.

"We have to be able to leverage the technology and ability to make the system much more efficient than it has been in the past."

Move to permanent use of more technology

Downey will unveil some of the technological changes to the CLA in a virtual town hall meeting this morning.

Geoffrey Morawetz, the chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, and Lise Maisonneuve, the chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, will also participate in the online meeting.

"The CLA has been doing so much great work ... giving advice on how to change the system. We're modernizing, and it's affecting everyone," Downey said.

In an effort to keep some court matters moving during the pandemic, there have already been some seemingly small but previously unthinkable changes to the system.

While the province has been largely locked down, court officials have allowed for some video or phone hearings to deal with bail applications and guilty pleas for a range of criminal offences.

But, the CLA and the provincial governmentboth agree, it's time for a larger, more permanent use of technology in the court system.

The CLA says video feeds into courts would potentially allow those with compromised immune systems to participate in legal proceedings without setting foot in a courtroom.

That could include lawyers, accused people, witnesses or even judges.

It's expected video feeds will also enable defence lawyers, Crown attorneys and judges to hammer out pretrial legal issues remotely.

Until now, those meetings were held at courthouses, inside a judge's chambers.

Struthers says any video-conference hearing that involves "any substantive change to a charge, or a statementon an allegation," will be made "fully public."

He said herecently participatedina murder sentencing by virtual hearing, and members of the press were notified and able to monitor the proceedings.

Both Downey and the CLA also say the evidence police and prosecutors gather for criminal prosecutions will likely switch to digital file sharing.

Up until now, it was physically handed over at court appearances. It often included reams of paper documents as well as USB sticks and CDs.

Tech could improve physical distancing

The switch to virtual hearings and the digitization of court files is expected to simplify and expedite proceedings.

It could also reduce crowding in courthouses

Pre-pandemic, it was common to see dozens of accused people, their lawyers, Crown attorneys and court staff packed shoulder to shoulder in small, aging courtrooms as they waited their turn to set dates for trialsor arrange for proposed case resolutions.

"By definition our courts are a congregation, and that's not what we're supposed to do anymore," saidStruthers.

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The CLA is also pushing for enhanced video communication between jails and courts.

"The more you have administrative appearances by video, it reduces transporting accused to court, reduces transport personnel and limits the dangers of people moving around. There's more control of the environment," Struthers said.

After the Ontario government locked down the province, calling cards were issued to inmates so they couldcontact their lawyers using cellphones.

Before COVID-19, they had to line up at pay phones in jails to make collect calls, and only to another landline, orlawyers had to travel to jails to meet their clients aprocess the CLA says was clumsy and costly.

COVID-19 adds to case backlog

By last December, Ontario's auditor general revealed the number of criminal cases awaiting resolution had grownto about 114,000.

Struthers says the COVID-19 shutdown has added approximately 30,000 more cases to thebacklog.

He hopes the use of video technology could help shrink that number.

"If there's a judge in Thunder Bay, for instance, who isn't busy on a certain day, they could preside over a trial in Toronto or Ottawa," he said.

Downey, the province's attorney general, says he supports that type of change, but itwould be up to court officials to implement.

"It's my job to make sure the technology is there, and the chief justices manage the scheduling and some of the resources."

The CLA says trials where the credibility of a witness or an accused is at stake,as well as other complex trials, will continue to be held in traditional courtroom settings.