The foreboding courtroom setting discourages meaningful participation beyond lawyers and judges. The judge presiding on high, robed to emphasize his authoritative dominance, armed with the power to control the process, is rarely challenged. Lawyers, by their deference, and by standing when addressing the judge, reinforce to the community the judge's pivotal importance. All of this combines to encourage the community to believe judges uniquely and exclusively possess the wisdom and resources to develop a just and viable result. They are so grievously wrong.
Judge Barry Stuart, Yukon Territorial Court, R v Moses, 71 C.C.C. (3d) 347 (1992)