Connection
Latest news
Crown attorneys call on Manitoba government to help address ‘dangerously heavy caseloads’
The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (MACA) is calling on the provincial government to help reduce mounting workloads that it says are making it difficult for prosecutors to meet their professional responsibilities. grievance it filed in April 2023. It says the grievance it filed back in April 2023 regarding 'dangerously heavy caseloads' won't be heard by an arbitrator until October 2025.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2025-01-10
Preparing RCMP body-cam evidence for court will be monumental task, prosecutor says
The RCMP is phasing-in the use of body-worn cameras across the country and expects 90 per cent of frontline members to be wearing them within a year. Shara Munn, president of the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Association, said while the body-camera evidence will be great to have, it will also mean a huge influx of work for prosecutors.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2025-01-06
N.L. government invests in 18 new Crown attorneys amid severe staffing crunch
Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Minister Bernard Davis announced Wednesday afternoon that the provincial government is investing nearly $24 million to improve the province's justice system.... The investment comes after CBC News reported in numerous stories that Crown attorneys in the province were "suffocating" from overwhelming workloads and a critical staffing shortage.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-14
Newfoundland to add more Crown prosecutors
Newfoundland and Labrador has agreed to hire more Crown lawyers following cries of a shortage of prosecutors in the province. The “multi-year investment” will include the hiring of 18 new Crown lawyers, according to a news release.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-13
Critical shortage of Crown attorneys has ‘gone on way too long’ and is hurting public safety
The Canadian Association of Crown Counsel, an umbrella group for thousands of Crown attorneys and government lawyers across the country is calling for a big boost in the number of provincial prosecutors in Newfoundland and Labrador.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-13
Most criminal cases in Ontario now ending before charges are tested at trial
More than half of the criminal charges laid by police in Ontario never make it to trial, according to data from Statistics Canada. The numbers paint a troubling picture of the province’s justice system. More judges, staff, prosecutors and courtrooms needed, says Crown attorneys’ association.
[ ...More ]Publication date : 2024-11-12
<-- Back to archived news
Crown attorneys association urges province to address staffing shortage in northern courts
26-11-2019
Katie May / Winnipeg Free Press Files
Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys president Jennifer Mann says the provincial court in Thompson hasn't been fully staffed in years despite dealing with the highest rates of violent crime in Canada.
Manitoba prosecutors are calling on the provincial government to do something about a "crushing workload" in northern courts, which they say is putting a strain on the province's entire criminal justice system.
Less than two weeks after a Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench ruling revealed systemic problems with the northernmost bail court in Thompson, the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys (MACA) is publicly asking the government to do more to attract and retain Crown attorneys to work in the North.
The provincial court in Thompson deals with the highest rates of violent crime in Canada and has the busiest court dockets outside of Winnipeg, but it hasn't been fully staffed in recent years, MACA president Jennifer Mann said in an interview.
"When you think about (the fact) that you have quite a significant shortage in staffing up there, which has been a chronic and ongoing issue, dealing with some of the most serious crime, the workload and the atmosphere up there is just simply crushing," she said.
The bargaining organization, which represents criminal-law prosecutors as well as Crown attorneys who work in civil and family law in Manitoba, is in the midst of contract negotiations with the provincial government. It says it requested a meeting with Manitoba's justice minister in mid-November, and has yet to hear back.
In a statement, Justice Minister Cliff Cullen said it is not appropriate for him to meet with MACA while negotiations are ongoing.
"We've been really wanting to sit down with the government to talk about what sorts of incentives can be offered to encourage people to go and work in the regional offices, and particularly the North, and to stay there," Mann said.
"What we've seen historically is that if they are able to find someone to go up there, it's generally speaking someone very, very young who's not from the area, often out-of-province, and so they go for a little while and then they leave, because it's such a crushing, difficult place to work."
The Thompson court office deals with a per capita caseload roughly 14 times the size of Winnipeg’s provincial court, according to recent data.
Nine of 12 Crown positions in Thompson are filled, along with three of five Crown positions in The Pas. The three northern courts — in Thompson, The Pas and Dauphin — have had eight failed job competitions in the past two years, Mann said.
Meanwhile, Crown attorneys are still regularly being flown up to Thompson and The Pas to fill in, stretching the prosecution service's resources in the capital as well.
"This is a chronic issue that's had a domino effect across the province. We want to be part of the solution and come up with ideas on how to best address it, but we do think it's time that something has to happen, that change is definitely needed," Mann said.
Erika Dolcetti, a Winnipeg Crown attorney who serves as vice-president for prosecutions with MACA, said the 3 1/2 years she spent working in Thompson at the beginning of her law career were defined by the isolation she felt handling serious criminal cases for a salary she says didn't meet the higher cost of living in the North.
"My very first case up there was an aggravated assault when my friends down here, my colleagues, were doing shoplifting cases. I had my first jury trial at seven months out, and my first murder on my own at a year out, so I did not have adequate mentorship, and nor do they now," Dolcetti said.
Last week, the government posted a job ad seeking a full-time Crown attorney in Thompson for an annual salary of $76,220 to $133,110, plus a northern retention allowance which is around $6,000 a year.
Apart from higher salaries, the province needs to look at incentives such as student loan forgiveness, Mann suggested, to attract Crown attorneys to the North. It's a "public safety issue," she said.
"I would say that right now, things are at an acute stage across the province. We're dealing with high levels of violent crime, and not enough staff. That's the bottom line."
Prosecutors' concerns are being raised after a recent decision from Court of Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin amplified calls for change to the chronically under-resourced northern court system.
"It is assembly-line justice; the human element was marginalized as an accused, the person whose freedom is at stake and who is presumed innocent, was sidelined," Martin wrote, calling for an independent review of the northern bail courts.