Justice has been long coming, but here is encouraging news from Canada:
Crown speeds up process in blood scandal
Defence protests bypassing of preliminary hearing
Mark Kennedy
CanWest News Service
Wednesday, December 24, 2003OTTAWA - In a rare move, the criminal proceedings against those charged in Canada's tainted-blood scandal have suddenly been put on a fast track.
Michael Bryant, the Ontario Attorney-General, has granted a request from Crown attorneys to send the cases straight to a trial, bypassing the normal preliminary hearings that could have significantly delayed the cases.
For years, tainted-blood victims have been crying for justice.
Yesterday, one of their spokesmen praised the decision to go directly to trial, a legal manoeuvre known as a direct indictment.
"The Crown has shown a great deal of strength and determination to pursue this," said Mike McCarthy, a hepatitis C victim who is a member of the Canadian Hemophilia Society....
"If there was a delay, many people who are in the final stages of their disease would not be alive to see the outcome. This will obviously reassure us that justice is moving quicker than it did in the last 20 years."