Justice delayed is justice denied, as the saying goes. But if that’s true, there appears to be no justice to be had in Ontario.
The time it takes for anything to happen in this province when the police or the courts are involved has reached a level of absurdity that is almost impossible to comprehend.
The most recent example is that of Sabrina Van Vassem. She died while under Niagara Regional Police custody, way back in May 2020. More than a year later, in July 2021, the Special Investigation Unit revealed that she died of an overdose. Fourteen whole months to announce what a toxicology report likely concluded in a couple weeks.
This kind of lackadaisical foot-dragging would be bad enough if it weren’t for the fact that it then took another three years to announce that a coroner’s inquest had been called into her death. This, despite the fact that a coroner’s inquest is mandatory in this situation.
How can it possibly take a year to reveal a cause of death, then another three years to announce a coroner’s inquest, when both things are legally required to be done? Who knows. Neither the SIU or the coroner’s office ever answer questions.
As slow and terrible as the SIU and coroner’s offices are, they look like Usain Bolt compared to Ontario’s court system.
As has been well documented here and in the Voice of Pelham when charges were laid, the case against Richard Lowes, the former butcher shop owner who stepped away from the family business he and his late wife founded following sexual assault allegations, continues to move at a glacially slow pace. Actually, that might be an insult to glaciers. According to research from Harvard, thanks to global warming, a glacier can move almost 25 whole centimetres in a single day. That’s practically warp speed compared to how fast the Lowes case is moving.
Charges against Lowes date all the way back to March 2021, and since then the courts have done little more than bounce the case around through a revolving door of different Crown prosecutors, judges, and even courtrooms—the case seems to ping-pong between courthouses in Welland and St. Catharines without rhyme or reason.
As for the delays, the stated reasons for each new deferral keep getting more and more silly. Back in June, at a court appearance that was specifically marked as “set date for trial” and was meant to finally get the Lowes’ case out of the legal quagmire and moving again, it instead ended in yet another deferral because his lawyer said he went on vacation and didn’t bother to speak with his client either before, or after returning from vacation, and only saw him for the first time when they arrived at court that day.
The stated reasons for each new deferral keep getting more and more silly
The look on the judge’s face was the same one my wife gives me after I get home from an eight-hour round of golf which I specifically told her was only going to take four hours: utter disgust.
But what can the judge do? His options are limited. He had little choice but to reluctantly grant another deferral and hope that maybe next time the Crown and the defence can actually get their act together and get to trial. Spoiler alert: they didn’t, and another deferral was granted a few weeks later that kicked the can down the calendar to August.
Even if Lowes’ next court appearance results in a trial date being set —were I a betting man, I wouldn’t place a single peso on that happening—then based on typical gaps between court appearances, it’s unlikely the case will even see a trial before the end of the year.
There are enough delays and oddities in the Lowes case that any reasonable person would look at this and think something fishy is going on. Four years to get to trial, when the among the allegations is the alleged sexual assault of a minor? Seems odd.
Especially when you look at other high profile cases, such as the sexual assault case against five members of Hockey Canada’s junior national team. They were charged this year, and the New York Times reports that the London courthouse is “moving mountains to make this trial happen,” and there’s a chance it goes to trial before the end of the year.
Charges filed, trial begins, all in the same calendar year. So it is possible. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Which does make one wonder: whose will is getting in the way of Lowes going to trial?
James Culic is not responsible for delays on the golf course, since it’s always a slow group of old guys in front of him. Find out how to yell at him anyway at the bottom of this page, or email tips on how to golf faster in a letter to the editor.
