The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Members of Legislature Give Views on Sinclair's Bill to Effect Abolition of Grand Juries ATTORNEY--GENERAL SEES DIFFICULTIES That there is an unnecessary amount of legal procedure in criminal cases through which accused per-- sons have to go before justice is meted out to them, was the consensus of members of the Legis-- lature who spoke yesterday on the second reading of the bill sponsored by W. E. N. Sinclair, Liberal House Leader,. to amend the Jurors' Act so as to abolish Grand Juries. Hon. W. H. Price, in Giscussing the matter, agreed that too many hearings were necessary, and stated he had been considering abandoning Coroners' in-- quests to some extent. Mr. Sinclair's bill was accorded second reading and referred to the Legal Committee for further study. & Legal Procedure Needlessly Long In Criminal Cases "I think there are too many hear-- ings, although I am not sure this is the one which should be abolished," said Colonel Price, referring to the Grand Juries. "Take the case of an accident. There is the Coroner's in-- quest, the preliminary hearing be-- fore a Magistrate, the Grand Jury and the petit jury hearings. Price States Opinion. dea in the of the Magistrate. The Grand Jury sel-- dom returns a 'no bill,' and in such a case the petit jury would very q;xiickly acquit anyway," said Mr. Sin-- clair. "We are getting a better type of Magistrate, and if he has heard the evidence and thinks that the case should go on for trial there is no necessity of the evidence being gone over again before a Grand Jury. And the Grand Jury deals only with cases which go before a petit jury. If they go before a Judge, there is no Grand Jury hearing. Not Used Elsewhere. "So, if the Grand Jury is not re-- quired where the trial is by a Judge alone, why is it necessary in the other cases? It is not used in Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta, and they get along well without it. Ancther duty of the Grand Jury is to visit public buildings. In all these cases the buildings are inspected by Gov-- ernment inspectors, and we should have enough faith in our inspectors to see that the inmates are com-- fortable and the buildings proper," continued Mr. Sinclair. "The Grand Juriese make recom-- mendations and in nine cases out of ten no action is taken on them. So when it does function no results fol-- low. They cost a lot of money also," said the Liberal House Leader, in de-- tailing how the time of courts was wasted with them, how Crown Coun-- sels and court officors had their time taken up with them, and how the mileage allowed the jurors mounted up. "I am satisfied that no county gets away under $1,000 costs, and in most counties it is much larger. The taxpayer is not getting value for the money spent in this respect," he said. Unnecessary Luxury. "The Grand Jury is a luxury, and one which might be dispensed with. I4 is an unnscessary appendage to the court. It wasies the time of the court, and the expense should be saved. I feel that the time has com? when legislation abolishing_ them should come into effect in Ontario. I submit that we are moving on. We do not require to continue institutions just because we have had them. _ _ "Institutions can be dispensed with when they are no long@er necessary. This would be a saving, and trials could be held more expeditious'y. It would not weaken the administration of the criminal law," Mr. Sinclair concluded. * "I agree with what the speakers have said with respect to Grand Juries visiting institutions," said At-- torney--General Price. "Their recom-- mendations are not taken very seri-- ously, and as far as that is concerned their functions are not very effective." Petit Jury Important. '"We all feel that the petit jury is a very important institution. A man feels better about a prosecution if he knows he has been tried by twelve of his peers," he remarked. Colonel Price then traced the development of the Grand Jury and referred to dif-- ficulties in dispensing with it. Any action taken would have to be in conjunction with Federal authorities, as legal procedure was under the March 14. Criminal Code, and it was now stip-- ulated that cases going before petit juries had previously to be heard by a Grand Jury. So this would have to be straightened out, he said. The Attorney--General remarked he had much correspondence from Crown Counsel throughout the Province on the matter. Many felt that to dis-- pense with the Grand Jury would be to place a heavy responsibility on the officers of the Crown. "And I am not &5 sure that I favor that. There would also be a big personal responsibility in border--line cases." Simplification Possible. The bill, as presented, could be | greatly simplified, he thought, refer-- | ring to its several clauses. "I have the | power as Attorney--General to lay an indictment before a Grand Jury, and | naturally that power would be gone. | There are many difficulties in the way, and I think the members should have a chance to hcear Mr. Bayly (Deputy Attorney--Gencral), who is an authority on the matter. There should also be a real investigation so as to see that whatever action is taken covers the ground thoroughly. I would be very glad to soe it go to the committee." Hon,. H. C. Nixon, Progrossive Lead-- er, gave the bill his whole--hearted , support. "If the Grand Jury ever| justified its existence, that time is long past," he remarked. "I have often wondered why it lingered so long. I heard of one, in Middlesex County, I believe, that, in spite of the | Judge, visited all the institutions and | carried on for a week. It handed in an astounding bill when through." _ "I had some doubts about the bill, but they have all bsen removed by the remarks of the member for On-- tario South (Mr. Sinclair)," stated Wilfrid Heighington (Conservative, St. David's). "It is interesting to notice the practice that has grown up in Ontario of having them visit all in-- stitutions. I once hsard Chief Justice Meredith say that they had no au-- thority to visit any except the jail. It just goes to show how far--reachinz the Grand Jury system goes. Thsy even visit homes for the feeble--minded. where, I understand, they could be refused admittance."