Goodbye to Preliminary Inquiries
Bill C-75, the federal government’s 300+ page omnibus bill makes some significant alterations to the landscape of criminal procedure, including restricting preliminary inquiries to offences punishable by imprisonment for life and investing a justice with increased powers to limit the issues explored and the witnesses to be heard at the inquiry. A preliminary inquiry is a screening mechanism for the purpose of determining whether the Crown has sufficient evidence to require a person charged with a crime to stand trial. Subject to one exception, preliminary inquiries are available to an accused’s who is to be tried in the Superior Court and who has requested one. The Superior Court generally only tries the most serious criminal offences. To the lay person, a preliminary inquiry can look like a trial. Even a lawyer walking into a preliminary inquiry may not be able to tell, at least initially, that he/she has stumbled into a preliminary inquiry and not a trial. Pre...