Last November, Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General announced plans for a juror counselling program to be in place in the new year.
Per this announcement, the Ontario’s Juror Support Program was officially launched on January 31, 2017.
Morneau Shepell, a third-party service provider, will provide province-wide counselling services to jurors. Key details of the program include:
- Jurors will be able to contact a call centre dedicated to the program, which will be operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Jurors may receive up to four one-hour counselling sessions upon the conclusion of the trial or inquest. They may also receive an additional four one-hour counselling sessions where recommended by the counsellor.
- The counselling sessions will be offered at no cost to jurors and made available in English and French by telephone/TTY, email, videoconference, in person or in another manner agreed upon by the counsellor and juror.
Additional details regarding the program can be found at ontario.ca/jurorsupport.