Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the Law Reform Commission of Canada (LRCC) consistently produced exhaustive and intelligent work papers and reports on matters of concern to criminal lawyers, whether defence counsel or prosecutors. Its commissioners and staff were first rate - more than one went on to sit on the Supreme Court of Canada. But the Mulroney government got rid of the LRCC, which left a great lacuna when it came to objective criminal law research and writing. In 1997 the Chretien government established the Law Commission of Canada (LCC), which while it does good work is a poorly funded body that produces almost nothing of relevance to practising criminal lawyers. It may not be an exaggeration to say that most criminal lawyers are not even aware of the LCC's existence.
As John Ibbitson reports in today's Globe and Mail, p. A4, the Conservative government has announced funding cuts to the LCC. Astonishingly, the 3.2 million dollar budget is being completely eliminated, which effectively means that the LCC will be no more. Ibbitson suggests, correctly in our view, that the Conservative agenda is to abolish the body, yet realizes that introducing legislation to do so would encounter too much resistence in Parliament. The indirect route to the same result is a complete and total funding cut.
In our work at GFN, we sometimes have reason to review the publications of law reform commissions in other countries, including England and Wales, Australia and New Zealand. These commissions produce top level work that plays an important role in law reform in their respective countries. In particular, studies and recommendations by the Law Commission of England and Wales have had a profound effect on legislation passed by Parliament in that country. It is a sad state of affairs that, from a criminal law perspective at least, we in Canada have nothing comparable. The Conservative government's latest move simply continues the disappointing trend in this direction.
To check out the LCC click here. To check out the Law Commission for England and Wales click here.
