It’s been a year since the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Jordan, which set upper limits for trial delays, and so The Canadian Press had a couple of good pieces on it today, both looking at the fallout in terms of what needs to change in the justice system, as well as looking at the numbers of cases that have applied or been granted a stay of proceedings owing to delays that have been deemed unreasonable. I will note that while justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says that the decision “lit a fire” under her, she’s been agonizingly slow in responding.

I write a lot for the Law Times, and I talk to a lot of players in the legal community, and there has been a sense of mystification as to what all of the delays are. The fact that it took her a year to start the process of reforming how judges are appointed was baffling, and that slowed down the process for making said appointments – especially as some of the committees advising on appointments still aren’t up and running, six months later. While more appointments are finally being made, it’s taken a long time and it’ll take even longer for those judges to be fully prepared and worked into the system.

There is the legislation that has been coming out in drips and drabs. For example, they made a big deal about a bill that would finally equalise the age of consent for gay sex, but then abandoned said bill to roll those provisions into a larger bill on doing away with “zombie laws” that have been struck down but remain on the books. How much time and energy was spent on that abandoned bill? We keep hearing about the big promised justice reforms promise – looking at the Criminal Code, sentencing, bail, the works, but we’re nearly two years in, and there’s still no sign of them. Yes, they’re big files, but this is nearly the halfway point in the mandate, and big, complicated files like that are going to take time to get through Parliament – especially in the more independent Senate where they will face pushback from law-and-order Conservatives who are looking to hold onto the “reforms” of the previous government.

And then there are the whispers about Wilson-Raybould’s office. There is a constant churn of staff, but not before great delays when it comes to actually filling positions, like the judicial affairs advisor – a pretty key role that took months and months to fill. And if these kinds of necessary staffing decisions are taking forever, what does that mean for the managerial skills of the minister? There are whispers in the legal community, and they’re not too flattering. So when Wilson-Raybould says that Jordan lit a fire under her, one shudders to think about the pace of progress had it not.

Good reads:

• In advance of the G20 in Hamburg, Justin Trudeau introduced Coldplay at the Global Citizen Festival, and met with leaders from Norway, Argentina and the World Bank.
• Trudeau apparently talked abortion rights with the Irish Taoiseach, given the country is having a referendum on it next year.
• The head of the MMIW national inquiry says they have been moving “lightning fast” and announced nine new hearing dates for the fall.
• The terms of the government’s infrastructure funds means that provinces and municipalities need to show how projects help growth and the environment.
• The government has tapped Janice Fukakusa, former CFO of Royal Bank, to head the Infrastructure Bank.
• Citizenship and Immigration says the number of “Lost Canadians” is statistically small, but I’m not sure that they have a plan to really deal with them.
• Peter Julian dropped out of the NDP leadership race, citing poor fundraising, but hasn’t offered an endorsement of any of the other candidates as of yet.
• Niki Ashton pitches a “Robin Hood tax” on stock purchases to pay for her platform commitments.
• Paul Wells sets up the G-20 conference and all of its potential pitfalls.