Last week, the Federal Government revealed Bill C-75. This new Bill proposes to bring significant changes to the Criminal Law. Among the changes that have been widely spoken about are the elimination of peremptory challenges in jury trials and new and stricter measures in domestic violence cases.

Mixed Reactions

This new Bill is creating mixed reactions among lawyers and legal academics. Some lawyers fear that the abolition of peremptory challenges in jury trials will actually cause more injustice to racialized accused persons in the future.

Why The Mixed Reaction?

A peremptory challenge is the ability for a lawyer, Crown or Defence, to challenge a prospective juror from being a member of the jury based only on that lawyer’s impression of that prospective juror. No cause or justification is given as to why the lawyer is challenging a particular juror.

Domestic Violence

Other changes brought by Bill C-75 are harsher measure in domestic violence cases: the onus in bail hearings in domestic violence cases will be reversed for repeat offenders. This means that it will be up to the accused person to convince a judge or a justice why he should be released on bail.

Though Bill C-75 has only been out for a few days, it is already the subject of much debate and heated discussions, but it is certainly one issue to follow closely in the legal news.

The full text of the bill can be found on this link:

http://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/C-75/first-reading