My week on jury duty

361 University Ave.

Some of you may already be aware that I was on jury duty this week and some have asked me how it went. When I got the questionnaire in the fall, I looked at the website to see about accessibility and all the court houses are accessible. When I got the summons, I had to think about how to get down to 361 University Ave. in downtown Toronto from my home in south Etobicoke. I thought about taking Wheeltrans because I thought I would leave at the same time every day. But I was also concerned about getting stuck in rush hour traffic on the Gardiner Expressway. So I decided to take the subway and that turned out to be the right decision. I'm sure it won't surprise anyone that when I got down to the court house on Monday, I was the only disabled person in the jury lounge. They have everyone divided into panel groups predetermined on the summons. On Monday, there were four panels. Everyone is sitting around waiting to see which group is called to court for jury selection. Two groups were called in the morning and the group I was in was called in the afternoon. The judge explains the case. This was a criminal case, an ATM robbery lasting three days. So they need twelve jurors. They call potential jurors at random by pulling names out of something you might see at a bingo hall. Both the crown and the defense attorneys can either accept or deny the juror. They have a dozen denials so it doesn't go on all day. My name never got called. Then they sent us home. There were no cases on Tuesday or Wednesday so we sat around for two days. They even sent us home at lunchtime on Wednesday. That's your tax dollars at work. At that point, I was very happy I decided not to take Wheeltrans as I would have been sitting around waiting for hours. The schedule inflexibility is one of Wheeltrans' biggest flaws. On Wednesday I had a fellafel for lunch and got on the subway. On Thursday they added a fifth panel. Two of the panels were called to court but my panel was not one of them. At the end of the day, everyone was excused and we didn't have to return on Friday. So we were finished a day early and I am now exempt from jury duty for three years. So the end result is nothing much happened but I thought some of you might want to know of any barriers for the disabled and there are none.