Gerald Stanley verdict

Some interesting themes emerging from the recent Gerald Stanley verdict. I'll say this about the Stanley case. The shooting took place on Stanley's farm. What were they doing on his farm? A gang shows up drunk and uninvited on your land themselves armed ... The evidence is that the adult individuals were illegally on his farm and themselves armed with a shotgun. Anyway there was a public trial, Stanley exercised his right to both a defense and a lawyer, and the jury found Stanley not guilty. So that's that.

Anyway in this link as just one example we have a member of the Senate of Canada demanding "concrete changes to the criminal code." That and an inflammatory tweet from the Prime Minister of Canada, disrespecting the fair trial and the jury verdict.

So what of these "concrete changes" we are hearing of that the activists demand? The end of jury trials? Perhaps doing away with trials entirely? Who knows. It would make sense to demand the end of jury trials, it is consistent with recent developments in criminal justice in Canada. After all juries are more truly independent and fair. They are harder to pressure from outside forces than in trial by judge alone.

Juries, unlike judges, aren't influenced by having to receive their paycheques and future pension from the same employer that provides the Crown prosecutors paycheques and pensions. Jury duty is also temporary, they aren't long term entrenched members of the system like judges are.

Oh but what about judicial independence? Well perhaps that's part of the agenda of these "changes" to the justice system. As I've written before, in the Judge Camp case and Judge Lenehan case, a precedent has been established where a judge can now be subject to "Judicial council review" for delivering the wrong verdict - i.e. the not guilty verdict. Juries (for now at least), unlike judges, are not subject to this post-trial "review" and are possibly better able to deliver an unbiased verdict based strictly upon facts and evidence proven at trial.

We really need more data from this senator, the activists, the Prime Minister, and the federal minister of justice. What exactly is on the table here for these concrete changes

• the right to a jury trial
• the right to a trial
• the right to face your accuser in court
• the right to an attorney
• attorney-client privilege
• the right to cross examine prosecution witnesses and evidence
• the right to testify in your own defense
• the right to not testify at your trial