In recent years, Canada has seen significant legal reforms that have altered the landscape of jury selection in criminal trials. One of the most notable changes involves the elimination of peremptory jury challenges.
Understanding Peremptory Jury Challenges
Definition
Peremptory jury challenges allowed both the Crown and the defence to reject a certain number of potential jurors without needing to provide a reason. This process was an integral part of jury selection in Canada until recent reforms.
Previous Law
Before the legislative change on September 19, 2019, each side in a trial could exercise peremptory challenges to exclude up to twelve jurors without justification, aiming to form a twelve-member jury panel from a larger pool of candidates.
Legislative Changes and Reasons
The 2019 Reform
On September 19, 2019, the Canadian Parliament enacted a law that abolished peremptory jury challenges. This landmark reform aimed to address concerns over jury representativeness and fairness.
Motivation for Change
Reports, including one by former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci, highlighted issues in the selection process, particularly the exclusion of Indigenous people from juries. These practices led to non-representative juries and were deemed unfair, prompting legislative action.
Current Jury Selection Process
New Procedures
In the wake of these changes, lawyers and their clients must now accept jurors as they are presented, significantly altering the strategy behind forming a jury.
Exceptions
While peremptory challenges are eliminated, challenges for cause remain. These include potential biases due to pre-trial publicity or racial prejudice, allowing for a more targeted approach to ensure impartiality.
Impact on Trials
The removal of peremptory challenges marks a shift towards simplicity and transparency in jury selection, aiming to foster a more inclusive and fair judicial process in Canada.
Comparison to U.S. Jury Selection
This reform sets Canada apart from the U.S., where peremptory challenges still play a significant role in jury selection, highlighting a fundamental difference in approach between the two systems.
This change of peremptory jury challenges in Canada represents a pivotal step towards enhancing the fairness of juries. By addressing systemic biases and promoting inclusivity, this reform seeks to uphold the integrity of the judicial process. As the legal community continues to adapt to these changes, the focus remains on ensuring that justice is served in an unbiased manner.
Video Transcription:
I want to talk today a little bit about jury selection. How that currently works in Canada, and the question that I pose, and that I am going to answer is, what happened to, what are called, “peremptory jury challenges” in Canada. First of all, let me describe, exactly what that is. Before September 19th this year (2019), parliament changed the law on that date by the way, when you are selecting a jury, both the crown and the defence, could challenge, without cause, for no reason, that is called peremptory, twelve of the jurors each?? (*unsure of the word here). For example, there would be a panel of a couple hundred people. The judge would call forward people, and you could, as the accused at that juror, juror look at the accused. The judge would say, you know, “accused, look at the juror” and if the lawyer, didn’t want that person on the jury, the lawyer could just say “challenge”. That person would no longer, what not be on the jury. You did this, this rotated between the accused and the crown. The crown had twelve challenges as well. Until you got a twelve member of the jury. There was a lot of talk about and this is very true, there was reports done by Justice Yacobucci, the former Supreme Court of Canada Justice, very esteemed, respected man, who did a report, that particularly in native, in Indigenous communities a lot of crowns and defence counsels, were simply challenging natives to not be on the jury, it wasn’t getting a representative jury, it wasn’t fair frankly. So they brought this in, and now you can’t challenge. You essentially have to accept, the people as they appear before the court. And I will explain another juror, in another video how this jury selection works but the bottom line, is peremptory jury challenges are no longer allowed. In most trials you had twelve, of challenges in the past, in a murder trial you had twenty. Now you have none. There are challenges, still for pre-trial publicity. If there was extensive publicity in a case leading to potential bias, you could challenge potential jurors and ask questions, and as well, you could challenge for racial bias. For example, if the accused was native or a black accused, you could ask certain questions, so very different from U.S. jury selection. Our procedure is now very simple, and again, I will discuss this in a different video.
