The number of Ontario trials where prosecutors used police information to vet prospective jurors is substantially higher than the government has disclosed to date, Law Times has learned.
Attorney General Chris Bentley’s department has informed nine defence lawyers in Simcoe County that Crown attorneys used the practice in past trials during which they represented defendants, a survey by the Criminal Lawyers’ Association found.
Those cases are likely in addition to two trials in Barrie, covered by the Simcoe County Crown jurisdiction, that were disrupted upon disclosure prosecutors had secretly obtained police information to screen jurors in murder cases.
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