Ontario's Premier Accountability Dashboard · Queen's Park Watch
Lesley Pasquino
Ontario Crown Attorneys' Association
Lesley Pasquino is the President of the Ontario Crown Attorneys' Association. She has publicly attributed the record number of Jordan-deadline stays of proceedings in Ontario to chronic resource shortages, stating that Crown attorneys are under "enormous pressure to resolve or move cases" away from trial to protect more serious matters. Her association's public testimony is the primary on-the-record source linking Ford government court underfunding to specific trial outcomes.
Connected Scandals
Over 157 inmates were improperly released from Ontario's dangerously overcrowded provincial jails between 2021 and 2025 — six remain at large as of April 2026. Solicitor General Michael Kerzner told the legislature they were all caught "instantaneously." Global News FOI documents proved that was false. Kerzner apologized "unreservedly." At the same Maplehurst facility running at 175% capacity, correctional officers zip-tied 200 inmates in their underwear for two days — and a judge stayed first-degree murder charges as a result.
As president of the Ontario Crown Attorneys' Association, Pasquino publicly stated that resource shortages are directly causing criminal cases — including fraud and sexual assault charges — to be stayed before trial. She documented that Crowns are under pressure to move cases away from trial to prevent Jordan stays on more serious matters, creating a system where less serious cases are abandoned to protect resources for more serious ones.