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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Publication date : 2024-11-12


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Lawyers promise to drag Couillard and Moreau to court

13-07-2017

The president of LANEQ, Me Jean Denis, believes that the absence of an agreement was predictable since the special law did not allow a "real negoitation". (ARCHIVES THE CANADIAN PRESS)

 

Despite their four-month strike in the middle of the winter, lawyers and public notaries (LANEQ) will have to settle for the lowest wage increase in the entire public service. Unable to agree with Quebec, they promise to drag Philippe Couillard and Pierre Moreau before the courts.

 

The prolongation of negotiations provided for in the special law adopted at the end of February did not bear fruit. In his report filed with the Ministry of Labor and made public Thursday night, Mediator René Beaupré comes to the sad conclusion "that no matter has been agreed." "Unfortunately," he wrote, "it was not possible to induce the parties to reach an agreement on any of the issues at the beginning of the mediation process."

 

The special law, which provided for the continuation of negotiations up to 105 days, lays down in Article 40 the conditions of employment which will apply to lawyers. Their collective agreement is renewed, and their salary increase will be only 6.75% over five years. Far from the 9.15% granted at the end of 2015 for the same period to the common front of the Quebec civil servants. 

 

"I am sorry that LANEQ did not reach an agreement with the government when it was possible to do so for 510,000 employees in the public and parapublic sectors," said Pierre Moreau, President of the Conseil du trésor, By press release. 

 

Quebec has never wished to give its lawyers a status similar to that of crown prosecutors whose working conditions are determined by an independent committee. 

 

LANEQ claimed a salary increase equivalent to that of prosecutors, ie 10% over four years. The lawyers were on the sidewalk from October 24, 2016 to March 1, 2017 to make their claims. The longest conflict in the history of the public service in Canada. 

 

The president of LANEQ and its approximately 1100 members, Jean Denis, believes that "this dismal result" was predictable since the special law did not allow for "real negotiation". An appeal for bad faith negotiations has been filed against the government and the first hearing is to be held in September before the Administrative Labor Court. "LANEQ intends to give testimony in particular to Prime Minister Philippe Couillard, Treasury Board President Pierre Moreau, and Finance Minister Carlos Leitão," warns Denis.

 

http://www.lapresse.ca/le-soleil/justice-et-faits-divers/201707/13/01-5115925-les-juristes-promettent-de-trainer-couillard-et-moreau-devant-les-tribunaux.php