I notice Ontario gets a bad grade on both the conviction rate and dismissal rate. Do you think this is due to people being charged that shouldn't be or due to the crown not doing a proficient enough job at prosecution?
It seems, based on the article, that Ontario doesn't have a pre-charge screening process. Ontario police have authority to lay charges on reasonable and probable grounds, without a prosecutor involved in the initial charge process.
Once prosecutors get the files they review them to determine if there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction.
The police standard is lower than that required by prosecutors and therefore a number of charges will be stayed pretrial than in jurisdictions where a prosecutor's pre-charge screen was conducted.
In my view, a pre-charge screening process (like DND has for courts martial) is very helpful in reducing the up front load on the court system.
