{"id":618,"date":"2019-10-02T16:24:27","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T16:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosenlaw.ca\/?p=618"},"modified":"2019-12-09T17:28:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T17:28:16","slug":"eliminating-peremptory-challenges-puts-judges-in-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosenlaw.ca\/index.php\/2019\/10\/02\/eliminating-peremptory-challenges-puts-judges-in-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliminating peremptory challenges puts judges in charge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Criminal Code reforms being rolled out this fall include the elimination of peremptory challenges \u2014 where trial participants can reject a certain number of potential jurors without stating a reason \u2014 which Toronto criminal lawyer John Rosen<\/a> says will cause \u201cchaos in the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe federal government\u2019s legislation, Bill C-75<\/a>, has a number of issues with it and the major one for me is the abolition of peremptory challenges,\u201d says Rosen, founder of Rosen & Company Barristers<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s clearly going to cause chaos in the courts and affect the manner in which juries are selected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the peremptory challenges, he says lawyers will be left with challenging a potential juror for cause or another technical issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt also puts the judge in charge of the process,\u201d Rosen tells AdvocateDaily.com.<\/a> \u201cUnlike the United States, which has extensive voir dire <\/em>of the jurors, with plenty of questioning, the history in Canada under the challenge-for-cause section has been narrowly interpreted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Canadian judicial system, each side has a number of peremptory challenges \u2014 in second-degree murder trials it\u2019s 12, and first-degree murder it\u2019s 20, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere may be plenty of reasons \u2014 in a sexual assault case I may not want a nurse on the jury, or an accountant in a fraud trial. The Crown will look at a prospective juror because they want an intellectual jury or working-class jury, it all depends,\u201d Rosen says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a challenge-for-cause situation, you\u2019re only allowed to ask questions that have been pre-screened by the judge, and only two or three questions are allowed, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis creates a problem on counsel because we\u2019re going to be asking for a much wider ambit of questioning,\u201d says Rosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n