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LE GAL E THICS BY PHILIP SLAYTON The system has been Background checks on jurors by police and Crowns are nothing short of an abuse of state power. this with traditional jury vetting, when both prosecution and defence publicly question, and perhaps challenge, pro- spective jurors in open court. What happened in Ontario is the secret gath- ering by police of information from confidential computer databases. This information was then handed over to Crown prosecutors, who apparent- ly had asked for it in the first place. Prosecutors used this stuff to identify and pick jurors who might be more inclined to convict, and to weed out those who might be sympathetic to the accused. To add injury to insult, when the story came to light, the Crown tried to suppress it by seeking a publication ban. It's all reminiscent of the stasi, East Germany's notorious secret police. This is a big deal. It's an abuse of state I power. It brings the administration of justice into question. Police and lawyers may have broken the law, and lawyers may be in breach of their own rules of professional conduct. Criminal defence lawyers, appalled by the whole thing, have started opening up old files to see if appeals are possible. Expect an avalanche of these appeals, at huge cost to the heavily burdened taxpayer. We should all be mighty angry about what has happened. What were the police and Crown attorneys thinking? In June, a Barrie, Ont., judge scrapped two lists of 120 potential jurors when secret background checks on prospect- ive jurors became known. Handwritten annotations next to some names on the lists noted Highway Traffic Act convic- tions, mental health problems, and the 18 A UGUST 2009 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com like. In some cases, the notes bordered on farce; "neighbour shot his cat" was one. Other names had "OK" written next to them. Did that mean they were likely to decide in the Crown's favour? One note next to a name was, "dislikes police." But all right, it was only Barrie. An isolated incident, perhaps. But then, a few days later, a judge in Windsor declared a mistrial in a murder case t turns out Ontario police have been conducting background checks on prospective jurors. Don't confuse compromised DARCY MUENCHRATH