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To predictable howls of dismay, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has unveiled what she properly calls a “bold” reform of the sleepy, slow-moving and lost-in-another-century criminal justice system.

Because the minister is a politician, and a lawyer by training, her language was judicious.

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But make no mistake: What she was finally doing was delivering a good, if imperfect, kick in the pants to what is arguably the most hidebound institution in the country.

It was the second such boot to the collective rear, the first having come in July of 2016, when the Supreme Court of Canada in a case called R v Jordan decried what it called “the culture of complacency” in the courts and attempted to set some limits on how long it should take to get to trial.

In Bill C-75, the government proposes to do much, and much of it appears to be about a genuine culture shift.

But easily the most controversial moves would see Ottawa abolish preliminary inquiries — these occur in provincial courts and allow lawyers on both sides to conduct a dry run of their case before trial — for all but the gravest offences and eliminate peremptory challenges in the jury selection process.