Connection
Latest news
Shortage of prosecutors: towards abandoning prosecutions
Crown prosecutors fear the worst in the face of the crisis which is slowing down the functioning of the criminal justice system in New Brunswick. Calls for help have been made for two weeks. Me Yves Duguay, Vice-President of the New Brunswick Association of Crown Prosecutors and prosecutor in Bathurst, admits that the situation has been worrying for a while.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-03-27
B.C. prosecutors’ association raises security concerns about Vancouver courthouse following assault
The association that represents B.C.’s roughly 450 Crown prosecutors is raising safety concerns around an East Vancouver courthouse after a member was allegedly assaulted outside last week. "We’re reeling, this has really shaken us to the core to have one of our own attacked right here,” said BCCCA president Adam Dalrymple.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-02-05
Increased number of homicides doesn’t bode well for overworked N.L. prosecutors, association says
There are 17 homicide cases before the courts in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the head of the association that represents local prosecutors says the higher-than-normal caseload will be difficult to handle.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2023-09-07
Manitoba adds 25 Crown attorneys to prosecution service amid workload issues
The Manitoba government hopes to add about two dozen more prosecutors and assistants to the prosecution service, which attorneys say has been struggling to keep up amid workload and workforce issues. Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys says province left group out of discussions.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2023-06-26
Les Leyne: Premier David Eby takes on lawyers — again
The B.C. NDP government has introduced a one-page bill that bestows the right to join a union on the 350 lawyers who work for government. There’s a catch. It herds them into a union the government prefers, the Professional Employees Association, rather than allowing them to form their own.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2023-05-06
‘Unfair labour practice’: B.C. government accused of blocking union bid by its own lawyers
Lawyers for the B.C. government say the province has ended negotiations with them ahead of legislation they claim aims to block their right to form their own union.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2023-05-04
<-- Back to archived news
JIM VIBERT: Nova Scotia’s sneak attack on Crown attorneys
21-10-2019
Rick Woodburn, left, senior prosecutor, and Perry Borden, senior crown attorney, both with Nova Scotia Prosecution Service, at the Nova Scotia legislature on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. - Eric Wynne
It was a sneak attack. That was the first sign Nova Scotia’s Liberal government was up to something underhanded.
Nova Scotia’s 100 Crown attorneys – a.k.a. Crown prosecutors – had been negotiating a new collective agreement with the province since April. The parties had been to conciliation, but agreement was elusive. The next step, entrenched in the Crowns’ agreement with the province, is arbitration.
But the McNeil government, which resembles nothing so much as a rather oafish bully when it comes to labour negotiations, is a one-trick pony. Without advance warning to the Crowns or the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the government resorted to the blunt, brute force of a legislation.
A little recent history is helpful. In 2016, the Crowns accepted the McNeil government’s austerity-based wage package in return for the assurance that binding arbitration would resolve future contracts if the Crowns and the province were unable to arrive at a negotiated settlement.
But at the first opportunity, presented by the impasse in the current contract negotiation, the Liberal government brought in legislation that steals away the Crowns' right to arbitration. The bill was introduced last week and is expected to pass as early as this week.
In one fell – and foul – swoop, the McNeil government broke its word, betrayed Nova Scotia’s Crown prosecutors and, according to a legion of legal experts, introduced and is about to pass a law that couldn’t withstand a Charter challenge.
The government is blowing all kinds of smoke for political cover while, with unseemly haste, ramming though a law that raises serious questions as to whether the government can be trusted and whether its word is worth anything.
Martin Herschorn, who has been director of Nova Scotia’s public prosecution service (PPS) for 20 years, took the unprecedented step of appearing before the legislature’s Law Amendments Committee to condemn the bill, which he says spells disaster for the PPS and for the criminal justice system in the province.
With barely contained anger, Herschorn labelled the government’s defence of the legislation misleading and disingenuous.
The government claims that, while it is removing the Crowns' right to arbitration, it is granting them the right to strike so long as they maintain essential services.
An essential service is, among other things, one that protects the safety and security of the public.
That’s pretty much the job description of Nova Scotia’s Crown prosecutors, who are struggling now to stay on top of their caseloads by working untold hours of unpaid overtime.
Which criminal cases before Nova Scotia’s courts will be deemed non-essential, allowing the accused to walk? None.
Every Crown attorney provides an essential service, so the right to strike that the province is offering is purely illusory, a political chimera.
Respect for the law of the land demands that the government get a legal opinion as to the constitutionality of the legislation, but if the province has done that it isn’t willing to share it publicly.
The government knows and is relying on the fact that a Charter challenge would take years to wind through the courts and cost the Crowns hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Opposition members on the legislature’s law amendments committee attempted to send the bill back to the Justice Department for just such an opinion, but the government’s majority on the committee blocked them.
Among the various defences the government has trotted out for cover is the suggestion that any agreement the Crowns get through arbitration could set a pattern for other public sector agreements.
It is ludicrous to suggest a deal covering 100 lawyers would set the standard for 75,000 public servants, but the government hopes Nova Scotians are just gullible enough to swallow that bunk. Plus, an arbitrated settlement would be based on comparisons with Crown attorney salaries in other provinces, just as previous arbitrated settlements between the Crowns and the province have been. Such a settlement would be completely irrelevant to the rest of the public service.
The Crown Attorneys’ Labour Relations Act is bad law. It is underpinned by a lack of fairness to the Crowns and a lack of integrity and honesty by a government that didn’t keep its word of just three years ago.
The provincial government snuck the bill into the legislature and wants to ram it through before too many Nova Scotians notice. That’s understandable. Most anyone doing a dirty deed wants it done fast.
