The president of the Association of Lawyers of the Crown of Ontario says that “attacks” launched by “politicians, media and public members” in response to two criminal cases of high profile equals “curls to the rule of law.”
“Whether they are attacks against tax independence or sexist attacks on the principles of fundamental justice, these actions are affronts the rule of law,” Donna Kellway wrote in an open letter.
“Personal attacks against crowns seeking a significant sentence are nothing less than attacks on the independence of the prosecutor. These attacks will not always promote decisions taken by our prosecutors.”
Kellway said in an email to the Canadian press that the letter refers to the reaction to the crown sentence proposals in the cases of two people associated with the protest of the “convoy of freedom” and criticism of the lawyer in the recent trial of Hockey Canada based on its kind.
Several conservative parliamentarians, together with the leader of the Pierre Poilievre party, have criticized the crown approach to sentence two key organizers of the “convoy of freedom.”
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, who have not yet been sentenced, were convicted of mischief in April for their roles in the organization of the protest, which blocked the streets around Parliament Hill for more than three weeks in early 2022.
‘How is this justice?’
“We are going to clarify this: while the unbridled violent criminals are released hours after their most recent positions and anti -Semitic uprooters destroy companies, terrify the nurseries and block traffic without consequences, the crown wants seven years in prison for the accusation of Lich and Barber,” Poilievre wrote on social networks last week. “How is this justice?”
In her own position on social networks, the attached conservative leader Melissa Lantsman said that “the crown suddenly wants to apply the law, the equal application of the law would be a good beginning, but this is a political revenge, not real justice and that is why confidence in our institutions is decreasing.”
Lich Lawrence Greenspon lawyer said that while “he liked” what Pailievre had to say, he shouldn’t have said it.
“The separation of the Church and the State, in this case, the legislature of the Judiciary, is something highly valued in our country,” Greenspon said outside an Ottawa court last week.
In the star of Toronto, a recent opinion article of a personnel columnist questioned why lawyers would represent men accused of sexual crimes in the Canada hockey trial.
“The genre of a lawyer does not play any role in determining the eligibility of one to participate in the legal prosecution or in the vigorous defense of any position in our criminal justice system. Suggesting otherwise is to undermine the principles itself on which the rule of law is based,” Kellway wrote.
“Such attacks show a fundamental lack of understanding of our fundamental constitutional principles, including the presumption of innocence, the right to a fair trial and equality.”
Kellway said the Canadians have seen political attacks against the justice system in the south of the border and should do everything possible to safeguard the independence of the system.
