Foreword

• Author: Eric Siebenmorgen
• Pages: 15-17

xv

Foreword

The authors of this book are, among their other qualities, both bril-

liant and generous. It has been my privilege to get to know them as

co-workers within the Crown Law Oce — Criminal at the Ministry

of the Attorney General. I have worked with them as students, as newly

minted lawyers, and as superb senior counsel. As it pertains to the

subject- matter of this book, I have also had the unique pleasure of serv-

ing with them as co-counsel in the Supreme Court of Canada dealing

with the topic of section 11(b) of the Charter.

In this book, the authors continue a strong tradition within the

criminal bar of passing on to others what they have learned through

their research, their courtroom experience, and the wisdom and exper-

tise of those who, by their own example, have led and equipped their

colleagues. They have prepared and argued many cases that concern the

right to be tried within a reasonable time. Whether because of innate

fascination with the subject-matter or from pure necessity driven by

their case assignments (I suspect the latter, which sometimes feeds the

former), they have accumulated a vast knowledge and a thorough con-

ceptual understanding which they have now shared with the profession

at large.

Students of the Canadian Constitution, and in particular the Char-

ter of Rights and Freedoms, will know that the right to be tried within

a reasonable time, encompassed within section 11b, stands some-

what apart from many of the other entrenched rights and freedoms.

While many individual rights and freedoms are intended to constrain

government activity, section 11b is cast in positive terms to impose