Prosecutor (Crown)
The prosecutor or sometimes referred to as the crown is an agent of the Attorney General in the legal system of Canada charged with the responsibility of prosecuting a defendant in a court of law. The powers of the prosecutor are set out by the article s.1 (1) of the POA. A Provincial Offences Attorney or simply a provincial prosecutor may be a trained lawyer, an understudy at law or some other individual mandated with the responsibility of representing the attorney general in provincial legal matters. They represent the attorney General in both criminal and provincial offences.
Majority of the prosecutors in the country are representatives of the Attorney General although quite a number are employed by either the providence or the municipality. The municipal prosecutors are mandated to
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prosecute all the criminal offenses under Part I and Part II of the provincial Office Charges. On the hand the provincial prosecutors are charged with the responsibility of handling all matters relating to Part III of the provincial offices charges. Most people believe that all prosecutors must be trained lawyers, however most POA officers are paralegal diploma holders. The work of the prosecutor includes a number of tasks outside the court such as evaluating charges in cases, preparing the cases to go before the court, reviewing statements of the defendants and witnesses, talking with and getting witnesses' statements, looking into and surveying the admissibility of witness’s evidence, collecting and securely keeping evidence and providing disclosure to the attorney’s of the defendant.
In the court, the prosecutor takes part in plea negotiations, leads discussions on resolutions and presents the case if there is sufficient evidence for a conviction.
These capacities are gotten from Rule 4.01(5.1) of the Paralegal Rules of Conduct of the Toronto: Law society of Upper Canada, 2007 which requires that all prosecutors to act for the public with fairness, respect, candour and courtesy in the administration of justice. The prosecutor must therefore act as blameless agent of the court in guaranteeing smooth stream of court processes in the organization of justice. The prosecutor ought to in this way demonstration in a reasonable and moral way and not be concerned with winning or losing cases but ensuring that justice is
served. The prosecutor has to carefully consider the two major components of a case in the administration of justice. These two components are evidence test and the public interest. The prosecutor is therefore tasked to ensure that the case is in the general population enthusiasm for an arraignment to occur. The prosecutor does not examine the case in light of the fact as this is work of the police force and other related bodies. He or she uses the report prepared by police, which has to be considered carefully to see if it meets the evidence thresh hold and is at liberty to request further investigations. He or she is not commanded to go for a trial when it is not in general society interest. The prosecutor is therefore required to consider all the components and backings the public population interest for a given case and makes the right choice which is normally going for a trial or referring the case to the alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
One of the few purposes of the Section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to ensure that the right for a fair trial for every person criminally tried on Canadian soil and the right for them to be tried within a reasonable time. This ensures that when the trial is commenced in court while the evidence is fresh and available during the trial. However, trials in the Canadian justice system can be delayed due to many factors in which the criticism could be on either the Crown or the accused. This essay will examine the Supreme Court of Canada case R. v. Morin. In this case, the accused was charged for impaired driving and the trial date set 399 days after the judge scheduled the trial. In total this was 444-days after the accused was charged with the impaired driving offence. The final verdict of this case set a precedent in the justice system due to the decision by the Ontario Court of appeal that decided that the trial delay was reasonable due to lack of prejudice to the accused during the delay.
Publication bans have been a part of the Criminal Code since 1988. A publication ban is a court law that prohibits trial information from leaving the case. Since these bans were first introduced in Canada, they have become a very useful tool in Common Law. These bans have been frequently used over the years for many purposes including avoiding the risk of adverse consequences to participants and for more accurate trial procedures. Having publication bans are beneficial, in every which-way, than not. These bans contribute positively to the environment of law and most importantly, the society within. This essay will outline why the court should have the right to impose a publication ban in Canada. It will support the debate that if Canada wishes to build towards a reputation of having trials handled efficiently, then it should not change the nature of these publication bans. It will portray the importance of these bans through a thorough explanation of how the bans work, and two solid arguments of the cause on the society and environment. First, this essay will discuss basics of publication bans and how they work. Then, this essay will point out how publication bans contribute to trial fairness in the court. Finally, this essay will touch upon how publication bans protect victims and those involved in the trials.
The merits of both the adversarial and inquisitorial system will be explored throughout this paper. The Australian rule of law best describes as all law should be applied equally and fairly. The five vital operations of the rule of law includes fairness, rationality, predictability, consistency, and impartially. The adversarial system adopts these operations by having a jury decide on the verdict and the judge being an impartial decision maker. In contrast, the inquisitorial system relies heavily on the judge. This can result in abusive power and bias of the judge when hearing evidence and delivering verdicts. The operations of the rule of law determine why the rule of law is best served by the adversarial system in Australia.
As our modern-day society is becoming increasingly complex with many things changing so to must the education and training requirements for police officers in Canada. What all must police officers in Canada change to become efficient in our modern society? Canada has recently seen a surge in immigration to our country which has only added to the diversity of this nation. This means that the police must make sure they are properly trained and aware of our diverse cultures to properly handle all of the people in our society. Frequently police officers have come under scrutiny for the way they handle people with mental health issues. This just goes to show that police in Canada must increase their training on how to handle this group
As is well known, There are many differences in legal system between Canada and China, since Canada is a country whose legal system is mainly common law system except Quebec, and China is a country whose legal system is civil law system based on Socialism. Since this passage could not summarize all the differences between two legal systems in such short passage,and the author is more interested in legislation which is the beginning symbol of law, so this passage will focus on comparing the differences of legislation between two countries in the following section.
Manarin, B. (2008). Role of the Prosecutor. In J. V. Roberts, & M. G. Grossman (Eds.), Criminal justice in Canada: a reader (3rd Edition ed., pp. 36-47). Toronto: Thomson Nelson.
The laws of the United States have been revised numerous times, and the Criminal Code of Canada is similar. The Criminal Code is a systematically arranged body of law dealing with crime. The code has been revised multiple times over the past century by the federal government
When it comes to the vague ethics rules and finding effective ways to create a set of clearer ethical standards, legalistic approaches should be taken. Legalistic approaches began in the early 1900’s with the first set of ethics rules, the 1908 Canons. The 1908 Canons stated the primary duty of a prosecutor is to seek justice. The 1908 Canons method failed due to the lack of clarity concerning in depth what the prosecutor’s ethical obligations were. Another remarkable approach was the 1969 Model Rules, which made operational progress in defining the ethical duties of a prosecutor which established a set of rules, but yet and still failed to address the ethical obligation of seeking justice (American Bar Association, 1983). If these legalistic approaches continue to advance and make suitable amount of progress, less failure will occur and eventually the goal of seeking justice will be reached. An effective method to alleviate the vast discretionary authority with little to no transparency would be to use a prosecutor’s handbook (Joy 2006). Both the American Bar Association Prosecution Function Standards and National District Attorneys Association make recommendation of using a prosecutor’s handbook. These written standards bring more awareness to prosecutors allowing them to know the limits of their authority and provides guidance on how to properly exercise discretion. At the last point, inadequate remedies which create incentive to prosecutorial misconduct rather than deter it can be solved by reformation (Caldwell, 2013). Within trial courts, when a prosecutor has fraudulently obtained evidence, the trial court does have to option to exclude the evidence in which has been affected by misconduct. This approach typically does not result in anything further than a verbal reprimand. There are no types of
Whitebread and Slogobin state that the job of executing the law at the federal and state levels rests with the prosecution. This means that the prosecutor makes the decisions about the charges. Prosecutorial discretion means that the prosecutor decides whether someone should be charged for a crime and what that individual should be charged with (Whitebread & Slogobin, 2000). The Bordenkircher v. Hayes (1978) case established some guidelines for using prosecutorial discretion. This case basically states as long as the prosecutor has probable cause to charge someone and what to file against them is at his discretion. Amongst the responsibilities of the prosecutor is the ability to decide how to bring the charges, such as, joinder of charges or joinder of parties. I will be discussing the choices that prosecutors must make when prosecuting a crime (Whitebread & Slogobin, 2000).
In representing the Sovereign in Canada, the Governor General and Lieutenant Governors have duties that cover a broad range of responsibility; among them are: the summoning and dissolution of Parliament / Legislature, the swearing in of the Ministry, the reading of the Speech from the Throne, the granting of Royal Assent and the use of reserve powers (Monarch And Commonwealth, n.d, para 2).
The judges that are a part of this group has many different roles, some of which are to issues warrants, making a determination of probable cause in evidence, denying or granting bail to offenders, overseeing trials, making rulings on different motions and even overseeing hearings. The prosecuting attorney is the one who will represent that state in c...
In the year 1970, the Canadian government founded the Law Reform Commission of Canada to ensure the progression of law making and to make recommendations for legal changes . The Law Reform Commission of Canada is constantly importing and suggesting proposals towards the criminal code of Canada. During the year of 1985, t...
The NSW Criminal Justice System is adequate when dealing with young offenders; however, like any legal system it does have its limitations. The NSW Criminal justice system does uphold the rights of the young offender by providing juveniles with special courts under the Childrens Court Act 1987 (NSW) by providing special protections under the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child; the recognising of culpability in regards to the age of the young offender by implementing doli incapax and by arranging a variety of diversionary programs and alternative punishments. However, the limitations of the NSW Criminal justice system in relation to young offenders is Doli Incapax in the The Childrens (Criminal Proceedings Act 1987) NSW which fails to recognise more serious offenders and The Young Offenders Act allowance for youth justice conferencing is not being cultivated for a wide enough range of offenders, leading the exclusion of some young offenders from the benefits that conferencing can offer.
Criminal profiling, first undertaken within the nineteen-seventies, has been used throughout thousands of police investigations from bureaus all over the globe, currently some question their practicality in police investigations. This essay argues the utility of offender profiling in police investigations. Police Investigations utilize Offender and Criminal Profiling methods because it narrows the field of investigation, needs diminutive physical evidence to begin investigations and uses victimology to predict future actions of the offender.
The New South Wales Criminal trial and sentencing process is adequate in balancing the rights of the victims, offenders and society however like any legal system is does have its faults. The options in the trial and sentencing process are stipulated in the Criminal Procedure Act 1986, the Crimes (Sentencing Legislation) Amendment (Intensive Correction Orders) Act 2010 and the Crimes (sentencing procedure) Act 1999 which features the use of charge negotiation, rehabilitation, mitigating factors and intensive corrective orders.