Cornwall Ontario – Justice Deborah Kinsella, who brought a Judge Judy pencil bag to trial, gagged a case this writer covered. Not only did she place a gag order on the plaintiff and defendant. She put the same order on the witnesses. While there is a reason to gag elements of a case, to protect a victim, there rarely are reasons to muzzle a case to the extent that this one did.
What ensued during the course of the hearings was something that appears to be heading to a lawsuit on behalf the accused who essentially was mauled by the local system from Crown Matthew Collins, to his boss Jennifer Burke, and the OPP and a community agency, but at the end of the day the courtroom belongs to the Judge and the blame has to flow to former Crown, Justice Deborah Kinsella.
I sat and witnessed most of the trial and it highlights why more journalists need to cover trials, but it also highlights why Attorney General Caroline Mulroney needs to start to address the Justice system in Ontario from how Justices and Justice of the Peace are chosen, to having more accountability for abusive and incompetent justices, and decisions. Appeals need to be more accessible and affordable. Crowns need to be held accountable for abuse as well as Justices.
The system simply is far too expensive for corruption and incompetence, especially for those who need it the most as did the defendant in this case who will have a lifelong emotional scar from what they endured and nearly lost their freedom; something that Justice Kinsella in this writer’s opinion should not have allowed to occur.
That the degree of gag order occurs in this case essentially covers up possible accountability of all those involved including her own actions to a degree and that dear readers is not Justice.
We need reform as there are countless victims of the system. I’ve seen it first hand, witnessed it first hand. In fact I would suggest that this writer can’t get a fair trial from any local justice as was recently seen in a case involving Deputy Judge Shelly Adams. Our region is simply that bad.
While there are horror stories all over the province; here in the Cornwall area it appears to be the norm with several political appointments leading to some very strange and costly decisions, and abuse of the public purse. For example the case I witnessed of Justice Kinsella took years to resolve and probably in excess of $100K of public tax dollars.
What do you think dear CFN viewer? Is it time to make our local justice system more accountable and transparent? You can post your comments below.
The justice system in Canada, particularly in Ontario, is a joke. It needs to be ripped down to its core and rethought. I don’t know how other provinces are, but Ontario’s is too cumbersome and tired.
It’s a slush fund now. The amount of cash spent on it in the system is a self fulfilling money wheel of power and politics. Sadly it has little to do with justice unless it’s justice against someone or some group it seems.
On the plus side…
It would appear that the Ministry of the Attorney General by gagging CFN has in effect officially recognized the Cornwall Free News as a bona fide media outlet.
Eat that Peters, Rodrigues, Shaver, and yer sidekicks.