Stop Calling It A Justice System

Because it isn’t.

What we call the “justice system” is, in reality, a legal process, one that has been shaped over decades by missteps, competing interests, and whoever has managed to have the loudest voice or the most persuasive argument at any given time.

It was never meant to be this.

It was meant to ensure fair, timely, and ethical trials. Instead, we now see serious cases dismissed over timelines, procedural delays, court availability, or witness issues. Not because the harm didn’t occur but because the system couldn’t keep up with itself.

Research across Canada has shown chronic delays in criminal proceedings, most notably highlighted in the R v Jordan decision, where the Supreme Court acknowledged that excessive delays were undermining confidence in the system. The remedy? Hard timelines. The result? More cases being dropped, not because justice was served, but because the clock ran out.

So what are we really calling “justice”?

Why I’m Saying This Now

In my book, I referred to the “justice system” several times. During an early read, a colleague challenged me: Explain what you mean. Because while we call it justice, it rarely delivers it.

That stuck with me.

And then this week, I watched a family, once again, prepare for yet another parole hearing for someone who destroyed their lives in the most unimaginable way. The family murdered, children murdered, but not until the killer spent a week raping the two girls before murdering them.

In Canada, we abolished the death penalty in 1976. I don’t disagree with that. A more enlightened society should not mirror the violence it condemns.

But let’s be honest about something we are reluctant to say out loud:

There are individuals who should never be released back into society.

Not because we lack compassion, but because public safety, and basic moral clarity, demand it. Some people give up the right to be free among the rest of us based on their actions.

The Reality We Avoid

We defer to experts, psychologists, psychiatrists, who assess risk, rehabilitation, and the potential for change. And while expert input matters, even research in criminology acknowledges that certain offenders, particularly those involved in extreme, sadistic violence (like the one getting another parole hearing) have significantly higher rates of recidivism and far lower rates of successful rehabilitation.

Yet families are forced, again and again, to relive trauma, standing in rooms where they must argue why the person who shattered their lives should not be given another chance.

Think about that.

We convict someone of unimaginable acts that most of us can barely comprehend and then we place the burden back on the victims’ families to justify continued incarceration.

That is not justice.

This System Isn’t Cracked—It’s Shattered

We like to talk about reform as if this is a system with small cracks that need patching.

It’s not.

It’s broken. Completely.

If the justice system were a house, it would be one that has been renovated, added onto, and altered so many times that its foundation no longer holds. At some point, you don’t renovate, you tear it down and rebuild.

That’s where we are.

The delays. The procedural arguments. The repeated trauma inflicted on victims and families.

This isn’t a system in need of tweaks. It’s a system in need of rethinking.

So Why Don’t We Fix It?

Because we (society) can’t seem to agree on anything anymore.

Not even the basics.

We’ve lost the ability to apply common sense to complex issues. We overcomplicate what should be clear:

If someone commits acts of extreme violence, murder, torture, repeated predation, why are we still debating whether they should be given another opportunity to harm again?

At what point do we stop explaining and start holding firm?

Pain, trauma, and hardship in someone’s past may help us understand behavior, but they do not excuse it.

They do not erase responsibility.

And they should not outweigh the rights of innocent people to be safe.

To the Victims and Families

I’ve seen cases dismissed. I’ve seen charges not proceed, not because the harm wasn’t real, but because the system failed to carry it forward.

To those who have lived through that failure, I am sorry.

You deserved better.

So I’ll Say It Again

Stop calling it a justice system.

Because if it were truly about justice, it wouldn’t look like this.

And if you believe it is justice, well then I’m listening.

Explain it to me.

Maybe there’s something I’m missing.

Image made with AI