I’m finally getting my day in court

HELP! I’m being held hostage in the bowels of the provincial court house in Toronto.

I’ve been selected for jury duty.

I can’t win the $50 million lottery, but I get picked from the millions eligible for jury duty.

Isn’t democracy a beautiful thing?

I arrived at 8:30 a.m. Monday and after being processed along with about 200 others, I sit and wait to be called to a court room, where I may get a juicy criminal trial or civil case involving lots of money.

My fellow jurors come from all walks of life – there’s women carrying Gucci purses and men carrying lunch buckets. There are young and old and people of every colour and race. Isn’t Canada is a beautiful place?

Some of my fellow jurors look a bit suspicious – are they on the right side of the docket?

The video they show us extols the virtues of being a juror – “you are a privileged member of our society and you should be proud and happy to serve,” the voice on the video tells us.

But no one seems to be happy. Most grumble that they’d rather being doing other things and many have come up with lots of excuses not to be here – you can defer your appearance, but you’ll still have to serve as a juror at a later date, the court officials tell us.

So, I might as well get it over with.

I can’t even tell you what trial I will be selected for – that’s against the law!

So, I’ll just sit and wait to be called and hope my week as a juror goes by quickly. Maybe I’ll help take someone off our streets who is hurting people or help someone else get justice.

Whatever, I’m glad to be here – honest!