They can grant bail to people charged with violent crimes, approve police search warrants for private dwellings and, while presiding over traffic court, can impose fines and short jail terms.
But given all that power, a justice of the peace needs no formal legal training for a job that can pay more than $150,000 annually And if that is not enough money, with written permission, a justice of the peace can moonlight, which is what Vernon Albert Chang Alloy, who made $178,000 in 2008, does as a real estate agent in Brampton.
Chang Alloy has also been in the news recently after being accused of making “unwanted physical contact with a another justice of the peace by inappropriately touching her in a sexual manner” on two occasions in 2006. He faces a hearing May 11 and could lose his job.
Meanwhile, justice of the peace Jorge Barroilhet, who made $155,079 in 2008, is alleged to have had “an inappropriate interest in, contact with, and involvement with paralegal services,” reads a summary of the allegations.
A public hearing into the matter resumes in June.
The government refuses to say how many moonlighting JPs there are, but promises to disclose that information when the Justices of the Peace Review Council tables its first annual report in the legislature sometime this year.
