- What is the
Canada Court
Watch Program?
- Who can participate in the
Canada Court Watch Program?
- Why was the Canada Court
Watch Program created?
- How will the Canada Court
Watch Program achieve these goals?
- How do I start a Canada Court
Watch Program in my area?
Can Court Watch help me in my personal legal
matter?
What is the
Canada Court
Watch Program?
The Canada Court Watch Program is a public awareness and education program developed
by the
National Association for Public and Private Accountability (N.A.P.P.A.). It is
a program designed to help and inform citizens, both young and old and from all walks of life,
to learn more about the family court and legal system and to get involved in their community by
helping in the process of correcting the many problems that Canadians currently face with
the Justice System. Citizens from the community called "Court Watchers"
volunteer their time where resources are available by doing such things as:
- participating as court observers and providing
sources of information and help to those facing the court system.
- participating with fund raising, membership and educational activities in the
community.
- providing community input to the legal process and to be part of the process to
affect change in laws and court procedures.
Local Canada Court Watch groups oversee a citizen's body called
the Family Justice Review Committee. This committee, which consists
of persons of good standing from the community, reviews matters involving injustice in
the community in an open and accountable process. Meetings are held in an open
public forum and matters affecting the citizens in the community are
discussed and
decided upon amongst the people of the community.
Currently, the program is funded solely through donations from individuals and
through businesses in the private sector. Financial donations are most appreciated.
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Who can
participate in the Canada Court Watch Program?
Participation and membership in a local Canada Court Watch Program is open all
members of the community, both men and women and members of all ethnic backgrounds.
Student memberships are available to those who are not of voting age. Those who
choose to become members must agree to work within the rules and regulations established
by the members and to support the founding principles, goals and objectives of the
organization.
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- Why was the
Canada Court
Watch Program created?
-
- The Canada Court Watch Program was created to address the concern of an ever-growing
number of Canadian citizens who feel that our system of justice is failing, especially in
our family courts. The courts are failing too many children and their families.
-
- Too many Canadian families know of family
member, neighbour or
friend who has been devastated by our family court system. The
founders of the
program feel that although there are many fine judges and lawyers working hard to maintain
the integrity and respect of the system, there are now too many cases involving children
and families that the court system is not dealing with in an effective and just manner.
Many Canadians have lost respect for our justice system.
-
- This in turn is creating a whole host of other social problems which can be
directly traced back to the decisions of the courts.
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What are the goals of the
Canada Court
Watch Program?
The Canada Court Watch Program has a number of goals. Some of these goals are:
- To help ensure that the rights and freedoms of all Canadian children and their
families are protected.
- To bring a new awareness to the courts and to all those in the legal profession, that
in matters of family law, that they have a moral obligation to protect the rights of
children, family and community, not just the interests of the individual client as is
currently practiced in the adversarial family law system.
- To usher in the highest standards of not only law, but ethics, which will improve the
reputation of Canadian justice system and make it the most highly respected, not only to
our own citizens but to all citizens of the world.
- To improve the reputation of all the professionals involved in the delivery of
justice to children and families and to make Canadian judges, lawyers and health care
workers the most highly respected in the world.
- To make the courts more open and accessible by all Canadians, rich or poor. To
ensure that the lack of money or bureaucracy will not become a barrier to justice.
- To improve the efficiency of the courts and to ensure that taxpayer's monies are not
wasted through abuse or inefficiency.
- To maintain accountability in the system and to ensure that all those working within
the legal system, including judges, lawyers, and health care professionals are held
accountable to all their fellow Canadians.
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How will the Canada Court
Watch Program achieve these goals?
The program will achieve it goals through a number of strategies:
- By educating individuals and the general public about the court system through the development and support of
public court watch and citizens' justice review groups. Promotion will be through
newsletters, brochures, other advertising media as well as public meetings.
- By taking members of the public into the courts so that they can directly observe for
themselves the workings of the court. The Canada Court Watch Program is currently
developing a student court watch program which will include taking high school students
into the courts as observers.
- By making the process of the courts more open by making the records of the court more
accessible to the public through the internet and various other media.
- By encouraging public support for those lawyers and judges who clearly maintain the
highest standards of ethics while at the same time alerting the public about those lawyers
and members of the judiciary who in the minds of the community appear not to be working
towards the best interests of children and their families.
- To promote positive change to laws that will help to protect children and families
through involvement in the political process at a local, regional or national level.
- By exposing to the public, any gross negligence or corruption within the justice
system which is tarnishing the reputation of the good Canadian judges and all those in the
judiciary. Where necessary Court Watch will support the citizens in their
communities in having judges removed from office or lawyers disbarred.
- To expose to the community any member of the legal professional who uses unethical or
illegal practices during the course of their business which is to the detriment of
Canadian children and families. Where necessary Court Watch will help support the citizens
to boycott those lawyers and those law firms who have been found by the public to have
acted in a manner that the community does not agree with.
- To expose to the community any professional, social worker, government employee, etc.
who uses unethical or illegal practices to the detriment of Canadian children and
families.
- Where necessary, the Court Watch Program will assist the citizens of a community to boycott those
professionals and/or government employees who act maliciously against children and their
families. We will help to get them fired or to put out of business where the
citizens in the community feel that this may be warranted.
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How do I start a Canada Court
Watch Program Chapter in my area?
We will provide a Canada Court
Watch Program - Implementation Package with complete materials and a guide to
assist you form a local chapter in your city. The cost is nominal.
It takes an initial group of 4 to 6 individuals in
a community to establish a successful chapter.
If you are
interested in starting a chapter in your community, email
us. Please include your
full name and contact information.
Training for local Court Watch chapters will be provided through the National Association for Public and Private
Accountability (N.A.P.P.A.).
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Can
Canada Court
Watch help me with my personal court case?
Due to the complexity of most
cases before the court, the overwhelming number of cases in the court system and
the limited resources of Court Watch volunteers, Court Watch cannot get
intimately involved with individual cases to the extent of helping people to
prepare documents or to give what would be considered as legal advice.
Court Watch can help in individual cases to the extent of providing supplemental information to
people which they may find helpful in their cases or to refer people on to other
resources that they may find helpful in their case before the court. Much of the information which Court Watch
passes on to people is based on information passed on from others who have had
previous dealings
with the legal system. Court Watch observers are volunteers and their
ability to attend individual court appearances is based on their personal
availability and resources. Court Watch will make every attempt to assist
persons to the best of its ability to do but again, due to the overwhelming
number of cases, cannot make any guarantees in any particular case.
Court Watch will attempt to help those who feel that the
legal system is failing them and feel that the public must be made aware of
injustices committed against them. Court Watch may be able to review
documents for the purposes of exposing injustices. It is up to the
individual person to make the choice as to what he/she may decide to do to bring
public awareness of their own case.
Those who would like Court Watch to provide help,
must be aware that most in the legal community, including judges, do not like
Court Watch being involved. After all, who in power and control wants to
be watched. In some cases, judges will punish those they see have Court
Watch involved in their case. Individuals must carefully consider how they would
like Court Watch to help and how visible they wish to be in having Court Watch
involved in their case. Court Watch can limit is help to that of simply
providing helpful information for people to use as they feel appropriate to
their case.
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