In March, 2004, British police arrested a group of men in connection with a bomb plot linked to al-Qaeda that, if successful, would have killed hundreds of people.
Simultaneously, Canadian authorities arrested Momin Khawaja, an Ottawa computer specialist, and charged him with being part of the same plot.
Almost 2 1/2 years ago, in April, 2007, five of those arrested in Britain were sentenced to life in prison for the conspiracy, in a trial that had lasted more than a year. In other words, it took about two years from arrest to the beginning of trial and about three years to conviction.
In Canada, by contrast, Mr. Khawaja was found guilty in October, 2008, of five counts of assisting the British terrorists and not guilty of two others. It took five more months for him to be sentenced, and his term of 10 1/2 additional years in prison (he spent five years in jail awaiting trial) is being appealed as too lenient by the Crown and too harsh by his counsel.
In other words, it has taken much longer in Canada to get a conviction and final sentencing than in Britain for the same crime. How come?
The Khawaja case illustrates, as do so many others, how slowly the wheels of justice too often move in Canada.
In the Khawaja case - again, as in so many others - arguments and rulings relating to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms slowed matters down. In this instance, an appeal was made to the Ontario Superior Court on Charter grounds, specifically the "motive" clause in the Anti-Terrorism Act.
We are rediscovering all the time that Canadian judges are notoriously unsympathetic to the government and intelligence agencies in terrorism cases. So was the judge in the Khawaja appeal, who struck down the "motive" clause in the terrorism law but allowed the trial to go forward.
The slowly grinding wheels of justice in many parts of Canada are a bit of a national scandal. The old adage about justice delayed being justice denied certainly doesn't apply much in this country, although in fairness some judges, civil servants, law professors and politicians are trying to do something about the delays. Good luck to them.
In Ontario, Attorney-General Chris Bentley points out that in 1992, it took an average of 4.3 court appearances to bring a charge to completion, whereas in 2008 it took 9.2 appearances. During that same period, the average time required to complete a charge went to 205 from 115 days.
Are cases more complicated? Is the justice system overburdened? Does it need more money?
Ask anyone in the system, and he will argue that of course the system needs more money - for judges, Crown attorneys, courtrooms, administrators, etc. But which area of public life doesn't attribute problems to the need for more cash? Frankly, it's a bit of a cop-out.
A few judges have spoken out on the delays. Michael Moldaver, an Ontario Court of Appeal judge, has warned that the criminal justice system is "on the verge of collapsing under its own weight."
University of Toronto law professor Michael Code has argued that the perception is growing that the criminal trial system is dysfunctional and that the legal profession bears considerable responsibility for this state of affairs.
Mr. Code, with former judge Patrick Lesage, also produced a report for the provincial government into how to handle complex criminal trials better.
He, and others reformers, have suggested expanding the power of judges to dispense with endless pretrial motions, tightening the forms of disclosure and changing the legal-aid system to reward brevity. Mr. Bentley is particular annoyed at the many adjournments that plague the trial system.
The Charter, beloved of all lawyers, has introduced whole new layers of argument and appeals within the legal system, especially since the Supreme Court's rulings in Charter cases have generally favoured the accused, as was evidence in the judge's first ruling in the Khawaja case.
Mr. Bentley has launched a Justice on Target initiative designed to reduce by 30 per cent the length of trials and number of court appearances. (Even if he succeeds, by the way, the average number of court appearances will still be about 50 per cent higher than in 1992, by his own figures.) Last month, the Attorney-General appointed a new case management master for the Superior Court to bring cases to trial faster.
In Ottawa, the federal government has been mulling over a variety of possible changes to the Criminal Code that might help to move matters along in the justice system. However, nothing concrete has yet emerged, and in a minority government, with jockeying for daily political advantage dictating priorities, delays in the justice system just aren't a sexy subject.
If reforms take as long to emerge as it does for justice to be rendered, we shall all be waiting for a long time.