Opening of the Courts
Opening of Courts Speech
The Honourable Sharon Nicklas
Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice
September 25, 2025
Good afternoon to those present and observing online. It is a pleasure to speak to you about the Ontario Court of Justice – Canada’s largest provincial Court. I am deeply grateful to both Chief Justice Tulloch and Chief Justice Morawetz for their support, collaboration, and friendship as we navigated turbulent times over the past year. Our Court has also been fortunate to work alongside Attorney General Downey, who has ensured that the Ontario Court of Justice is adequately resourced, with 52 new judge positions, and has recently filled 42 Justice of the Peace vacancies. Minister Downey, Deputy Minister Corbett, and their team of Assistant Deputy Ministers – Randy Schwartz, Marian Jacko, Erika Cotter, Katie Wood, and Peter O’Keefe – have been strong partners in focusing on how we will transform justice in Ontario, about which I will address you today. We also work closely with the Solicitor General’s office and look forward to advancing essential initiatives related to those in custody to expedite justice. Our other partners from legal associations, particularly Legal Aid, Boris Bytensky of the Criminal Lawyers’ Association, and Federal Crown Attorneys, have been with us at every turn, and we look forward to our next steps. Thank you to the speakers today, too, for your insightful comments.
In my first speech of my 8-year term, 2 years ago, I discussed the Court being at a crossroads and needing to choose a path. Last year, I mentioned that it felt like we needed to be on a full sprint on that path, making immediate changes, as the criminal justice system was in a state of crisis, with bulging caseloads and more people in custody awaiting resolution of their matters than ever before. We sprinted to develop policies and pilot projects. We held 21 case management forums throughout the province in the areas of criminal, family and Provincial Offences, to gather ideas for change from justice participants and their leaders, assess the appetite for change, and determine how to address it. As pointed out by legal scholars and practitioners, courts have long been based on precedents. It is easy to get stuck in local practice or to see change as disruptive to the practices that they know. Having worked in the court system for 35 years, not much has changed except that everything seems to take longer and is more complicated. However, when we examine other organizations or professions, we see radical change. If a surgeon said that they were going to install the exact knee replacement as they did in 1990, you would find another surgeon. Dated local practices create confusion, inequities, and delays, as they are simply local. We have tried to change as a system with the times. We have maintained the Zoom courts that we initiated during the pandemic, as lawyers, litigants, and observers have found them productive and convenient. For the areas of law we cover, these Zoom courts are primarily for the early parts of a case before trial. However, in publishing those Zoom links, we found ourselves under attack where racist comments and disturbing images were being made and shared, to the extent that Court Services has had to monitor who gains access to these Zoom Courts. This restriction on access was a necessary step in striking a balance to provide justice and stop these behaviours. We thank the Court Services Division, particularly the Managers, Supervisors and Clerks of our Courts, for so diligently verifying users so that justice participants can engage with the Court safely and respectfully. Our court staff and trial coordinators are critical to the justice system, and we could not do any of our important work without their assistance.
At around the same time, we have had incidents involving court security in the past year, including a tragic event, that raised heightened concerns about the level of court security across the entire province, as well as heightened the need to be respectful and inclusive of the needs and perspectives of Indigenous communities. We are grateful to the Attorney General, DM Corbett, DM Di Tommaso, and their teams, as well as the Ontario Provincial Police, Nishnawbe Aski Police, and several local police services for their prompt responses in looking at the issue of Court security. At the same time, I must thank ADM Jacko and Chiefs of Indigenous communities for working with us on understanding how we can work in partnership and in the spirit of reconciliation.
As we sprinted to tackle these issues too, as any athlete knows, you cannot always sprint. Despite our best efforts, cultures of delay and inefficiencies continue to linger in Family, Provincial Offences and Criminal Courts, which can be linked to the overrepresentation and over-incarceration of vulnerable and marginalized individuals, particularly Indigenous peoples and racialized groups. What we are focusing on now, as we embark on this new judicial year, is creating lanes of focused and well-paced strategies. This plan can seem like a daunting task for a court of our size. With a current complement of 346 judges, 10 more to be added with the new budget, and 348 Justices of the Peace, plus approximately 70 active per diem judiciary members on each bench, we have a court comprised of over 800 judicial officers. Our Justices of the Peace come from fields with extensive backgrounds, all at the top of their careers when joining us as jurists. Their education is robust, and their dedication to our work is truly commendable. They preside over bail and case management of 250,000 criminal cases a year, as well as in 56 independent municipal courts, applying the law from over 100 statutes. Then, 319 judges thoughtfully hear the pleas and trials of those criminal cases, which, as I mentioned, have become much more complex and lengthy over the courts’ 35-year history. Over the last 5 years, the number of sexual assault trials we are hearing has increased by over 60%, and major assault trials by 30%. The work is hard but our criminal court judges are experts in this field and ensure justice is served in every unique case. In 25 jurisdictions across Ontario, over 60 of our criminal court judges also hear family court matters, along with some judges who only hear family matters. Our family court judges are knowledgeable, compassionate and dedicated to helping people through some of their worst days.
We have 56 base courts and 70 satellite courts, and also serve 29 fly-in communities, and in total schedule into 680 courtrooms. That is why change is so challenging – there is such a diversity of communities and populations that we serve, and yet to truly have a just system, there must be consistency. Thus, we are embarking on establishing these lanes of focused and well-paced strategies with specific zones of transformation — for bail, for case management, for those needing community support, and for completing cases in a timely manner.
In criminal law, we are creating teams of experts with a view to reducing the number of appearances and giving litigants a chance to address their matters more meaningfully. Our ultimate goal is to establish two primary paths for cases. The public will have confidence knowing that we are proportionally giving serious cases priority through immediate, intense attention, and having agencies available to support mental health, addiction and other social issues for those facing less serious matters but who may repeatedly come in contact with the system because of their underlying personal circumstances. While we work on creating community court hubs across the province for that purpose, we must acknowledge our profound appreciation for the government’s support of the Justice Centres currently operating in London, Kenora, and Toronto, with future sites in Barrie and, hopefully, Timmins. Justice Centres move beyond simply responding to and processing criminal charges, aiming to prevent re-offending and actively promote strengths-based opportunities to improve outcomes for accused persons, their families, and victims and survivors of crime. This model seeks to protect public safety and promote community well-being, prompting us to reconsider the “business as usual” approach by addressing the complex and intersectional web of issues that often brings youth and young adults before the Court. We are grateful to the Attorney General and his team for their incredible support in advancing this work in the province to integrate the Court and community to steward this model. Every jurisdiction wants a justice centre, which begins with a Community Needs Assessment. This foundational step ensures that each site is a tailored community justice solution – one that reflects local realities and responds meaningfully to community needs. Naturally, this requires time, funding, and resources, and we remain committed to supporting the continued expansion of the Justice Centre model. In the meantime, we also want to recognize the outstanding work of MAG’s Community Justice Coordinators in Windsor, Hamilton, Thunder Bay and Brampton. CJC’s implement, on a smaller scale, some of the effective approaches used by the Justice Centre Model – by bridging connections to meaningful, community-based supports and services. We are committed to working together to build a more dynamic justice system – one that is innovative, collaborative, and principled.
That is also why, looking forward, we are focusing on youth. At our provincial case management forum taking place tomorrow, we are bringing in over 100 justice leaders from across the province to plan the continued transformation of the criminal justice system. We will spend the morning planning how to continue prioritizing the reduction of criminal caseloads. To help us do so, we have created a position within our Court of a Senior Advisory Scheduling Judge, and we are grateful to Justice Enzo Rondinelli, who has taken that on recently, presiding all across the province, to understand all of the tentacles of our system, to come up with a plan. In the afternoon of the forum, we will discuss ways to reduce recidivism among high-risk youth. We recognize that more than half of all children in foster care in Canada are Indigenous – 53.8% although only 7.7% of children under 14 in Canada are Indigenous. We also know that there is a disproportionate representation of Black children being investigated in the child welfare system – Black children make up 10% of the population, but approximately 14% of the investigations relate to Black families. Studies have shown that the hardships and trauma experienced by youth in care, and the fact of being involved in the child welfare system itself, make these youth more vulnerable to becoming involved in the criminal justice system, including increased rates of victimization.
That takes me to the work in our family courts. Our dedicated family law judges strive to help Ontario families in crisis every day, and in doing so, focus on the needs of these youth. We are rekindling discussions on how to identify at-risk youth in family courts before they potentially cross over into the criminal justice system. We are striving to deliver on our long-held policy of single-judge case management for all families across the province in our 25 court jurisdictions so that one judge works with one family. We held five family case management forums for the five regions of the province where we hear family law matters to understand their needs. We are working to synchronize trial weeks so that judges can assist other families if courts fold in another jurisdiction, and are implementing a team of per diem family judges to conduct settlement conferences across the province so that these judges with particular expertise can meet with families before they head to a trial that may further divide them. The ability to work province-wide is facilitated by our initiatives to go paperless, particularly with the Courts’ Digital Transformation, which includes our Toronto family courts this fall. We want to acknowledge Assistant Deputy Minister Peter O’Keefe and the Courts Digital Transformation team, all of whom have been considerable partners in our efforts to modernize the justice system. We look forward to this initiative launching in Toronto family courts in a few weeks, and are also already looking forward to its expansion!
For our 56 independent Provincial Offences Courts, we also held seven case management forums this spring, one in each Region, to discuss how they can standardize and streamline processes and ensure that cases are completed well before delay becomes a concern, particularly in serious cases. We are grateful to Assistant Deputy Minister Katie Wood and her Provincial Offences Act Team for working alongside us to improve these experiences for all Ontarians who attend these courts.
I have spoken in the past about the work of our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, chaired by Associate Chief Justice Hall, and our Indigenous Initiatives Advisory Committee, chaired by Associate Chief Justice LeRoy. The work of their dedicated committees continues to help us build a stronger, more inclusive court. To expand upon their work, in March of this year, we appointed Justice of the Peace Daphne Armstrong, a proud member of the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations, to the newly created position of Northwest Court Strategy Advisor. This strategy builds on the two initiatives of the Kenora Youth Justice Centre and the Thunder Bay Restorative Justice Court, where relationships have been developed with First Nation communities and traditional Indigenous perspectives are being integrated into court processes. Outcomes have included lowered rates of recidivism, and what is also apparent is their reconciliation efforts through teachings and relationship building. Together, Justice of the Peace Armstrong and RSJ Gibson are developing concrete actions within the Court’s purview that can lead to meaningful improvements for justice participants in the Northwest Region. We will soon consider moving to other Regions, learning from their successes.
While we reflect and engage in meaningful relationships with all justice participants, it has become clear that the work in our Court can take its toll, as we witness and hear about the toughest days within our society, day after day. Our Court is taking a broad look at the wellness of our judiciary, which will impact all who work in the system, as we determine how to schedule cases most effectively and complete them in a timely manner, without interruption. Learning from other provinces about how they approach this work and understanding the needs of those who do the work are central goals for the upcoming judicial year.
I am also mindful that, as an inclusive court, today, September 25, marks Franco-Ontarian Day, a celebration of the social, economic, cultural, and political contributions of the Francophone community in Ontario. It recognizes the resilience and vitality of Franco-Ontarians, who have maintained their language and culture. September 25 was the day their flag was first raised in Sudbury in 1975. To advance French language rights, we are creating a committee of bilingual jurists who will make recommendations on how we can better support individuals in Court who are seeking to proceed in French and how we can more efficiently schedule French matters. Additionally, I spoke at the AJEFO conference in June to discuss the need for more French-speaking lawyers to take on cases in our courts. Also today, I wanted to inform you about the large number of Francophones who are looking for lawyers in family law, child protection, and criminal law. This being the case, especially in the Northern Ontario region, but also elsewhere in the province. I want to encourage you to come and plead in the Ontario courts of justice, where your talents are desired and needed. These people have the right to services in both official languages.
Although I speak to you today as one voice of the Court, I am surrounded by a chorus of impressive judicial leaders at the regional and local levels, as well as two active and supportive associations. I thank all from the Ontario Court of Justice who are here today. I want to particularly acknowledge some of our administrative judiciary who have completed their terms, for their vision and leadership, particularly Regional Senior Justice of the Peace Melanie Bremner and Regional Senior Justice of the Peace Martha De Gannes. Senior Advisory Family Judge Sheilagh O’Connell, Senior Advisory Justice of the Peace Lauren Scully and Senior Justice of the Peace Jane Moffatt will soon be finishing their terms as well. We are so grateful for their energy and enthusiasm in these roles. We now welcome Regional Senior Justice of the Peace John Domm, Regional Senior Justice of the Peace Greg Fantino, Acting Senior Indigenous Justice of the Peace Logue, along with Regional Senior Judge Ted Graham and Regional Senior Judge Tony Leitch, who, in hindsight, I should have publicly welcomed last year. All of your voices are important to our tables.
I must also thank and applaud the two Associate Chief Justices who have taken on enhanced projects for the Court that feed their passions and complement all the work being done. Here are a few highlights.
ACJ Aston Hall has taken on new roles to speak with legal organizations and law schools, to explore how our Court can be more inclusive, and to inspire lawyers, paralegals, and students to work in the Ontario Court of Justice as we need them to help build a better Court. ACJ Jeanine LeRoy, who is also the Coordinator of Justices of the Peace, is delving into the details of our first appearances in bail and case management to shake up old methods and provide a fresh, better, and more efficient experience for those before the Court. I am so grateful for their dedication and vision in all of their work. With their respective support on outreach and operations and building on the important work initiated by former Chief Justice Lise Maisonneuve, we will collectively improve our pace of transformation through 2025. We know that our justice system needs to be agile, treating everyone with dignity and respect, hearing their story, yet bringing their case to a conclusion in a way that the public has confidence that justice has been achieved quickly and yet gone the distance.
Thank you, Merci, Miigwech.