Lawyer Frank Addario says he is concerned that the current system does not allow intervention if a judge is seen to commit legal errors. He said: 'You worry when a judge has to be repeatedly schooled about the importance of basic concepts, but under our current rules there is no remedy available unless the judge discloses his or her incorrect thinking out loud. Appeals are a partial but incomplete solution to this problem.’

Virtually always convicting

Concern has focused particularly on Justice John Ritchie, investigated by the Ontario Judicial Council but allowed to continue working. James Lockyer, founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, said: ‘When you have a judge that is, from what everyone says, virtually always convicting people who have trials before him, you have to start worrying. You have to worry that innocent people are being convicted. If they are, and if the criminal justice system knows that through common sense, then it has to find a way of doing something about it.’ Source: The Star