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8 Crim. L.Q. 31 (1965-1966)
Review of Committal for Trial

handle is hein.journals/clwqrty8 and id is 45 raw text is: Review of Committal for Trial R. E. Salhany* The right of a magistrate to commit an accused person to stand trial is contained in s. 460 of the Criminal Code. It is there provided that after all the evidence has been taken, the magistrate shall commit the accused for trial if in his opinion the evidence is sufficient to put the accused on trial... The import of the magistrate's discretion and the extent of a superior court's power to review that discretion has been the subject of extensive judicial consideration. Historically Under the early common law the magistrate's role was almost that of a public prosecutor.' The examination of witnesses and the recording of evidence was intended only for the information of the court; in fact, the accused had no right to be present at these proceedings nor had he the right to view the disposition. Stephen attributes this early function of the magistrate to the absence of an organized police force.2 Eventually, with the progressive establishment of organized police in the early 19th century, the magistrate began to assume more and more the role of a judicial officer with his object the full inquiry into the probable guilt or innocence of the accused. Such is the function of the magis- trate in England3 and Canada' conducting a preliminary inquiry today. * Roger E. Salhany, a graduate of McGill University and Osgoode Hall Law School, was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1964 and is presently in practice with the Toronto firm of Rosenfeld, Allen & Schwartz. 'Sir James Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England, Vol. 1. p. 221. 21bid., p. 228. SKenny's Outlines of Criminal Law, 18th ed., 704, 711. 4Criminal Code, s. 460.

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