United Conservative Part Justice Critics Mike Ellis and Airdrie's Angela Pitt issued a statement yesterday about ongoing court delays in the wake of the Supreme Court's Jordan Decision.

Pitt says Albertans are frustrated that so little progress has been made to address the backlog of court cases in the province.

The recent case of Tamara Lovett, the Calgary mother convicted of criminal negligence causing death in the death of her seven year old son who died from a strep infection that Lovett treated with holistic remedies, sparked the UCP statement.  Her lawyer argued that, despite the conviction, the proceedings should be stayed because the case took too long to be heard.  

About that case, Pitt says, "First of all, I would sympathize with the family who's had to go through this lengthy process to see justice then it comes to a halt because the case is taking too long.  This isn't fair to the accused and this isn't fair to the victim.  Something in the system needs to change and it needs to change quick."

Pitt says the justice system isn't working and needs to be re-examined.  "It (the system) has never been upgraded, it's never been examined, it's never been looked at.  There are multiple problems to be addressed.  For instance we've been talking for years in the province about the lack of judges.  We need the federal government to step up and appoint a bunch of judges so we can start addressing some of the backlogs in our system, but addressing judges alone isn't the only solution."

14 Court of Queen's Bench positions remain open despite promises from the Trudeau government that they would be filled.  

The UCP statement says that Alberta judges, prosecutors and defence attorneys agree that Alberta is one or the worst provinces in the country when it comes to timely access to justice.  The statement goes on to say that it's clear that the NDP government is failing victims of crime in Alberta.

Since the July, 2016 Supreme Court Jordan Decision, more than 200 criminal cases have been tossed due to unreasonable delays in the cases which included murders, sexual assaults, drug trafficking and child luring.  The reason they were thrown out was because of a judge's decision that the defendants constitutional right to a timely trial was infringed upon.  

The Jordan Decision came about after the high court ruled the drug convictions of Barrett Richard Jordan must be set aside due to unreasonable delay.

The court said the old means of determining whether proceedings had taken too long were no longer adequate. The new framework said unreasonable delay was to be presumed if proceedings topped 18 months in provincial court or 30 months in superior court.

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