I got a notice once, but since I’m eligible to serve I just called the sheriff’s office. They said they would cancel it.
Jury lists here are made up from health card registrations, as it’s the most comprehensive listing of residents in the Province.
Northern Piper, I’m sure that you meant to say, “… but since I’m not eligible to serve …”
Quite so. 
I got called for jury duty about a decade ago, for a coroner’s inquest, but wasn’t selected. I was slightly disappointed, but my boss was relieved.
Jury duty? Never been asked and I suspect I never will be asked: living in Quebec with an obviously anglo name the odds are stacked against it.
My wife was asked last year but she was able to mail in an educational exemption (“We’ve got that form right here!”) and that was the end of that.
I expect that it would have been the local sheriff collecting names and addresses from municipal tax rolls. These days in Ontario, the jury panel (the big list of everyone in the province who might end up on a civil, criminal or coroner’s jury) is put together by the Provincial Jury Centre, which mines the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation’s database (MPAC did not exist when you were selected). Local sheriffs or court services personnel then winnow the data (e.g. people not eligible to serve on a jury) and send of the notices.
What is the right crowd and what is not the right crowd has made quite a stir in the northwest of the province. Most bands were not providing lists of potential jurors because the bands are not Ontario municipalities let alone providers of private land ownership data to MPAC, because there are privacy issues, and because of lack of funding. For example, in the Kenora District a bit more than a decade ago, less than one half of one percent of the First Nation population was on the district’s jury roll, and in the Northwest Region the figure was only two percent. That in turn has made it very difficult for people from bands in the region to be tried by a jury of their peers that is representative of the community as a whole. It came to a head in TBay when a murder trial was put on hold because it was not possible to form a jury that was representative of the community as a whole. R. v. Wareham
Think about it. The very high rate of incarceration of aboriginal people is grossly disproportionate to that of the general populace, and the very low rate of jury service of aboriginal people is grossly disproportionate to that of the general populace. This juxtaposition is very problematic at best and out and out racist at worst.
Retried Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci took a close look at the problem. His report is well worth reading. First Nations Representation on Ontario Juries - Ministry of the Attorney General
I posted a thread about the jury questionnaire a few years ago:
I ended up having to report for jury selection for a murder trial, but I wasn’t selected. I think there were three or four hundred people asked to report for that one trial. It took quite a while just to go through the list and sort us into smaller groups!
There were some mildly amusing bits of the selection process. The judge heard the excuses of several people who said they couldn’t serve because of hearing problems. His response was along the lines of: “Can you hear me now? You can? Then you’re qualified to serve on a jury.” Also, there was an extended delay while calling up a guy who listed his profession as a batcher; it took a surprisingly long time to figure out that he was really a butcher with poor handwriting.
I (and my then-wife) moved to Alberta many years ago. At the time, I put a Canada Post redirect on our mail from Ontario, so it followed us to our address in Calgary. That allowed us to change addresses for magazine subscriptions, etc., that we had forgotten to do before leaving, while still receiving our mail.
Imagine my surprise when, after about two weeks in Calgary, I got yet another questionnaire for jury duty in Ontario, thanks to the redirect. There seemed to be no option on the questionnaire for “I have left Ontario, and cannot serve on an Ontario jury,” so I wrote a letter to the applicable Ontario sheriff’s office, explaining that we moved, and giving our new address and phone number in Alberta, and inviting questions, if there should be any. I never heard anything more from the sheriff’s office in Ontario.
Then I became a lawyer, and I don’t have to worry about jury service any more.
I was summoned and selected to sit on a jury for 2 weeks back in 2000. I actually enjoyed it (I had special leave from work) but sympathized with all the other jury members for whom it was a personal and/or financial hardship to attend.
I received another summons the following year but wasn’t selected… nothing since.
I was asked three times, and each time was immediately excused as I am active duty.
I was drawn for jury duty once but was immediately excused. My boss was the Crown Attorney on the case.
Why do you say that? English and French are both used in the Quebec courts, and criminal jury trials can be in either language, depending on the accused’s own language.
???
Your name has absolutely nothing to do with how the jury selection process works.
Funny aside, my uncle who grew up in Montreal and was fluently bilingual but ended up living in Toronto. He “escaped” jury duty (and a couple of traffic tickets) by requesting that all communication and proceedings be in french.
For practical purposes a juror’s name does matter, at least according to my colleagues who report on court cases and my friend the criminal defence lawyers.
The right to a trial in English or French is decided by the accused, and so those issuing the call for jurors know if they need English- or French-speaking jurors.
Add in the small size of the anglo population in Montreal, its aging demographics and the corresponding drop in criminal activity, and the relative rarity of jury trials, and I don’t see a reason I ever would be called.
I don’t think that’s unusual.
…except that is not how jury selection process works.
I will be in Nova Scotia the second week of September, if there’s anyone here in that area who might be down for meeting up. I go there every year to visit a friend who lives in Monastery, northeast of Antigonish.
Happy Labour Day!
Have any of you given any thought as to how Canada should respond if/ when the US intentionally tries to screw Canada out of NAFTA?
Make some symbolic tariff gestures, but keep trade as open as possible otherwise, and work towards a trade deal after Trump is gone.
Given the overall state of the world, it’s time to build up the military, too. Get the planes and ships bought already.
The US isn’t trying to screw Canada out of NAFTA: this is entirely Trump and his belief that deals and trade are identical to a game of Monopoly.
The key point to remember is that any and everything that Trump says is utter bumf. The only power he has is to impose taxes on his own people on items they import.
Whatever happens in the trade talks in the weeks to come will still have to be approved by Congress, and that will likely only happen in 2019.
The US-South Korea trade deal that was supposedly a great win for Trump in March still hasn’t been approved.
Any thoughts on the Quebec election? I gather the CAQ is ahead a bit in the polls, but the Liberals are still in striking distance.