Ontario to roll out new portal expanding digital access to court system
Members of the public, litigants and lawyers in Toronto will be able to access far more of the court system online starting next week, as the province launches the first phase of what is set to be an Ontario-wide portal.
The Ontario Courts Public Portal is set to go live on Tuesday and will allow people to file documents, pay fees and find virtual links for court hearings online.
At first it is limited to Toronto matters and excludes criminal cases, but expands digital access for Superior Court family, civil, small claims, bankruptcy, Divisional Court and enforcement cases, as well as provincial court family cases.
Phase 2 will include criminal matters, with a planned launch in 2027, and a rollout provincewide for the $166-million system being eyed for 2030, Attorney General Doug Downey said in an interview.
“It’s going to create a significantly more accessible and robust system that will help (the public) have transparency and access their own court cases, filings, paying for things, getting documents out of the system,” he said.
People will still have the option of using paper because the approach is “digital first, not digital only,” he said.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The COVID-19 pandemic thrust the courts into the digital age at a much quicker pace than it had previously seen, but Downey said he had court modernization in his sights before then.
“When I was a court clerk many, many years ago, it struck me that you couldn’t pay for filings with a credit card,” he said.
“When I became the attorney general in 2019 you still couldn’t pay for a filing with a credit card – very basic, entry-level-type stuff. So I was on a mission to modernize the system.”
Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, who approached Downey four years ago with a request for the government to procure an off-the-shelf system to digitize the courts, said in a speech last month that this new portal – the end result of that request – is a historic transformation.
“Long overdue, this new digital system will replace our currently disconnected technologies with one integrated, seamless platform across all areas of law,” he said.
“This is a truly user-centred product for everyone: the judiciary, staff, as well as the lawyers and parties before Ontario’s trial courts.”
Downey said he believes procuring the new platform from Thomson Reuters, which was awarded the contract in 2023, instead of trying to start from scratch allowed the portal to get up and running relatively quickly.
“My approach was that, let’s apply our expertise to what we need from it to customize it, as opposed to start from a blank slate and start coding,” he said.
The former Liberal government spent years trying to implement a court information management system with many of the same goals of allowing electronic access to court records, but abandoned it in 2013 after spending $10.3 million.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
SEATTLE – Kevin Gausman will get the start for the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.
He’s 1-1 in the playoffs this year with a 2.38 earned-run average.
Related Videos
The Seattle Mariners will counter with Bryce Miller on Friday afternoon.
Blue Jays slugger Anthony Santander is not in the starting lineup for tonight’s Game 4 due to back stiffness.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
Manager John Schneider says Addison Barger will move to right field, Ernie Clement will play third base and Isiah Kiner-Falefa will start at second base.
The Blue Jays can even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece with a second straight victory at T-Mobile Park.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
A British Columbia First Nation is getting some land back in an agreement with the federal government as part of a claim settlement that dates back almost two centuries.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty and Snuneymuxw First Nation Chief Mike Wyse say in a joint announcement that the three parcels of land in Nanaimo, B.C., total about 80 hectares and were Defence Department lands.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The announcement comes months after an agreement between the two parties to settle a claim over the federal government failing to set aside village land previously promised in an 1854 treaty.
The federal government has also agreed to provide $42 million in compensation to the First Nation in the agreement.
The nation says its vision for the land involves a mixed-use development that include housing, commercial space, community infrastructure and economic opportunities.
The federal government says the Snuneymuxw has the lowest reserve land base per capita among B.C. First Nations, and the addition will increase its role in the Nanaimo region.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
The parents of an infant who was killed, along with his grandparents, in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby, Ont., in April 2024 are suing Durham police.
The statement of claim from Gokulnath Manivannan and Ashwitha Jawahar, and two other family members, was filed this month against two Durham Regional Police officers, the Durham Regional Police Services Board, the estate of the driver who struck them and U-Haul.
Lawyers Brad Moscato and Adam Wagman of Howie, Sacks & Henry LLP sent a statement to Global News calling the loss to their clients “unimaginable” and indicating that their focus right now is on “grieving and supporting one another through this devastating time.”
Wagman told Global News in an interview they want to ensure there is a “system that prevents the public being put at risk.”
“Obviously, the police are there to fight crime once it happens. But primarily, the police are here to protect the public. In this particular instance, the system failed,” he said.
“I don’t even suggest that it’s the individual police officers. The system failed this family, the system failed every single person who was on the 401 that day and this could have happened to any of them.”
On the night of April 29, 2024, the SIU said Durham Regional Police officers were notified by an off-duty officer of a robbery at an LCBO near Green Road and Highway 2 in Clarington, Ont.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The SIU said officers found a vehicle of interest — a U-Haul cargo van — and followed the van through numerous streets in Durham Region “as the vehicle drove erratically” and then got on Highway 401 at Stevenson Road in Oshawa in the wrong direction and was travelling westbound in the eastbound lanes.
Shortly after, there was a multi-vehicle collision on Highway 401, just east of Highway 412, in Whitby, resulting in the death of the child, aged three months, his grandmother, 55, and his grandfather, 60.
The baby’s parents, both from Ajax, were also in the car and were injured in the collision.
The driver of the U-Haul, Gagandeep Singh, 21, was killed in the crash.
The statement of claim alleges Sgt. Richard Flynn and Const. Brandon Hamilton “exercised negligent and reckless judgment” when they “drove on to Highway 401, in the wrong direction, and pursued the Suspect Motor Vehicle westbound in the eastbound lanes.”
It adds the two officers “failed to consider available alternatives to pursuing the Suspect Motor Vehicle” and “failed to consider public safety in their pursuit of the Suspect Motor Vehicle.”
Statements of defence have not yet been filed. Durham Regional Police told Global News while its aware of the lawsuit, it will not comment as it is part of an ongoing investigation and legal process.
Flynn and Hamilton were both charged with three counts each of criminal negligence causing death and two counts each of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
The plaintiffs, which include the baby’s remaining grandmother in India and his aunt, are claiming damages in the amount of $25 million for personal injuries and corresponding damages.
“We know that a lawsuit and money can’t bring back what these people have lost. We hope that there is a measure of comfort that compensation can bring and that they can use that money to honor their loved ones, but we’re a long way away from that,” Wagman said.
“Really, we want to start by getting answers and we want to make sure our community is safe, and that’s what the police want to do, too. So we want to make sure that we have a system going forward to prevent this from happening to anybody else in the future.”
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
-
Uncategorized4 months agoShop Proud, Eat Proud, Be Proud — Ottawa Canada Day Market This June 28th
-
4 months agoRing of Fire road to bring prosperity to First Nation, problems for caribou: report
-
4 months agoMeasles circulating in northeastern B.C. community, health officials warn
-
4 months agoCanada’s world junior trial saw juries tossed, intense testimony. Here’s a recap
-
4 months agoFormer major leaguer, Jays doctor Ron Taylor dies
-
4 months agoJagmeet Singh apologizes for attending Kendrick Lamar concert after Drake calls him out
-
4 months agoAnishinabek Nation chief says he briefed Ontario police on protests against Bill 5
-
4 months ago161 bricks of suspected cocaine found on truck trying to cross Canada-U.S. border