Vic Toews - Ralph Klein Minus Charisma

In a Ralph-Kleinesque maneuver, is musing about dropping Preliminary Hearings from our criminal prosecutions process.

Besides being one of the sillier ideas I've heard, the idea of dropping preliminary hearings strikes me as having little or no real benefit in terms of the costs that our criminal court system incurs.

My guess is that it's going to do little beyond making the central trials a lot longer and more complex (with multiple adjournments and delays requested as the two sides maneuver their cases).

Of course, we have to recognize where this is coming from. Toews is of the "lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key" school of criminal justice. After all, this is the same man who thinks a ten year old is ready to understand what a judge is doing.

One can hope that this is a "trial balloon", but I suspect it isn't - not coming from the current bunch.