A serious shortage of Justices of the Peace in Ontario means that it can take hours for police to obtain a second warrant at night, and apparently pot smokers are using that opportunity to ditch their stashes. "If we can't get ahold of a JP, we can't do our job" says Officer Steven Rogers, deputy chief of police in Barrie, Ontario.
    There are over 100 vacancies to fill for JPs, and recent cost cutting by the Ontario government has reduced funding to perform this service.
    A new trend in Canadian policing is about to take shape that will end pot being flushed down toilets or raced out the back door while police officers wait around for hours to get a second warrant.
    Ontario will appoint 6 new JPs to staff a 24 hour "telewarrant centre" by early 1997. Using special "encrypted" fax machines designed to thwart electronic interception, police will be able to fax requests for search warrants at any hour of the day or night, says Tom Fagan, a lawyer heading up the project in the Attorney-General's ministry. Search warrants can be faxed to police officers who will then go in and make their busts.
    A swift and silent amendment to the Criminal Code passed last year legalizes the procedure, and in fact this fax-a-warrant is already in place in Alberta, BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Quebec. Since 1994, Ontario JPs were converted from 500 part-timers paid on a fee-for-service to a more independent, full time salaried body of 300.
    Telewarranting means fewer JPs are needed to do the job of approving search warrants, and the savings to the taxpayer may be diverted to the hiring of more police officers to watch over us.
    There are many questions still to be answered now that JPs are becoming mere office workers. How long will it be before they will seek collective bargaining for job security, benefits, and pensions? And will they have the right to go on strike?
Dr Alexander Sumach