"A central objective in the criminal trial process is fairness. The guarantee of a fair trial is and should remain a courts paramount concern, especially in light of the risks the accused faces The need for an accused to be fit at the time he or she faces trial is an entrenched principle of common law, born of the demand for fairness. Insistence that an accused be fit to stand trial also ensures the maintenance of the integrity of the justice system and, from a practical point of view, keeps the ever-expanding volume of trials moving. And, importantly, as we discuss, while the fitness rules are typically seen as protective in nature, they should not operate unreasonably as an obstacle to the trial process and thus unnecessarily prevent the accused from obtaining closure. Commencing in the early 1990s, we have seen in Canada an unprecedented increase in the number of mentally disordered accused entering the criminal justice system in respect of whom the issue of fitness is in question. Statistics show that, since that time, the number of such accused entering the criminal justice system has been escalating by as much as 10 percent annually while overall arrest and prosecution rates have been declining. There have been a number of hypotheses offered to explain this growth. What is very clear is that the criminal justice system has been left to deal with mentally disordered accused in volumes that are difficult to accommodate.

Also clear, as set out in the following pages, is the fact that, while the broad objectives of the fitness rules can be traced to antiquity, there remains considerable uncertainty with respect to their scope and application."--.