It’s amazing how long it takes for people in Canada to stand trial for their alleged crimes.
Cochrane has seen its share of shocking occurrences in the last few years.
The tragic loss of former Cochranite Ryan Lane to a suspected murder and the alleged killing of sports personality Billy Powers and his wife, Donna Lee – Billy wrote a column in the Eagle’s sports section for many years – are two that come to mind for many.
It’s easy to simply forget when things like this happen, as the months, and sometimes even years, begin to tick by before the accused murderers will ever see their cases before a judge or jury.
Take the Lane murder case as an example.
Lane, 24, went missing in February of 2012, and his remains were found in November of that same year.
The trial for those who have been charged with killing Lane – Sheena Cuthill, Timothy Rempel and Wilhelm (Will) Rempel – was scheduled this past August for March of 2016. That’s nearly three and half years after the arrest and subsequent charge of the three suspects.
One of the accused (Will Rempel) is arguing against a first-degree murder charge, believing that in his case second-degree murder is more appropriate, and will appear in Calgary court this Friday, Oct. 24 to argue this point.
As for the Powers’ murder trial, Derek Puffer, 39, who has been accused of killing Powers and his wife, is finally now standing trial for his alleged crimes, with the trial kicking off this past Monday, Oct. 20.
Puffer was charged with second-degree murder July 5, 2013, meaning this trial will have taken a year and three months to get underway.
He has pleaded not guilty to the murder, but, as was stated in court, the issue is not whether Puffer killed the Powers couple or not, but rather if he is criminally responsible or not due to a mental illness.
It’s certainly nothing new in Canada’s (or most other countries for that matter) legal system for murder trials to take some time to get into gear.
And as frustrating as it can be for those on the outside looking in, it is a thousand times more so for the families directly involved.
Legal delays are not only for murder trials, however. Those who have ever attended court, whether simply out of interest or having a matter to address, would know firsthand the time it takes to even have some of the simplest issues addressed.
There are several reasons for these delays – finding legal representation, lawyers delaying to learn more about the case, those accused being given time to decide on their best way forward, working around the schedules of lawyers and sometimes judges – some of which are valid, while others seem pointless, and simply accepted because ‘that’s just the way it has always been done.’
But what does the time and effort put in by lawyers, judges, sheriffs and court staff, who repeatedly appear in court only to have these matters held over week after week, cost Canadian taxpayers?
Cochrane’s alleged armed man, Benjamin Laslo, who was said to be roaming the streets of West Valley with a weapon, prompting Calgary Police Services, HAWCS helicopter, Cochrane RCMP and the RCMP Emergency Response Team South to search for and eventually arrest the 26-year-old Cochrane resident, has appeared in court (both in person and by CCTV) three times over the course of a month and a half. Does it really take 44 days to determine if a person should be released on bail?
According to a 2013 Maclean’s magazine article, ‘Do we really need so many lawyers?’, there are 90,000 licensed lawyers in Canada…2.8 per 1,000 people.
A study done by Stephen Magee on the optimum level of lawyers per capita suggests that Canada sits at just the right amount of trained legal minds.
So, if the problem is not that the country doesn’t have enough lawyers to get the job done, should Canadians just accept the fact that the country’s legal system crawls forward (sometimes backward) at a snail’s pace?
Is there even anything anyone could do to change the way the legal system works? Doubtful.
People will just have to accept the fact that no one is in a rush to go to jail and will use any tactic possible to avoid the slammer.
