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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.
[ ...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
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RCMP’s forensic firearm testing backlog adding delays to justice system
16-12-2018
The RCMP’s forensics labs are taking nearly four times longer to analyze firearms than they did just four years ago, adding delays to a criminal justice system under pressure to speed up after a recent Supreme Court decision.
The turnaround time for routine firearms analyses by the National Forensic Laboratory Services (NFLS) is 206 days, according to figures provided by the RCMP covering April 1 to Sept. 30. That compares with a 56-day average recorded during the 2013-14 fiscal year.
While the tally is down marginally from last year’s mark of 238 days, it is a significant bump from the average recorded during the first quarter of this year – 158 – suggesting the labs have been bogged down over the course of a violent summer across much of the country.
NFLS technicians perform all the functions popularized by the hit TV series CSI, but with none of the glamour – providing court-ready forensic analysis of toxicology, biology, firearms and trace evidence for police services across the country.
“They do great work,” said Rick Woodburn, a Nova Scotia-based crown attorney and president of the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel. "There’s never been an issue with the quality of their work or commitment to their jobs. There’s just not enough of them.”
Mr. Woodburn is at the forefront of calls to reduce wait times at the RCMP crime labs. He says since a Supreme Court ruling in 2016 put time limits on criminal court cases, judges, Crowns, defence attorneys and others have been working double-time to ensure people get speedy trials. “The one thing slowing us down is the lab,” he said. “Forensic testing will take time, that’s understandable. But the numbers we’re seeing are terribly lengthy. It’s dramatically affecting our justice system.”
In a written response, RCMP spokeswoman Sergeant Marie Damian said the Mounties have recently received federal funding for two new positions with the NFLS’s firearms and toolmark program to address backlogs.
“The increased capacity is expected to improve turnaround times of services associated with the integrated ballistics identification system and to ensure that guns-and-gang related submissions are prioritized,” Sgt. Damian said.
The RCMP labs have long been under scrutiny. An auditor-general’s report released in 2007 found the labs rarely met their internal turnaround targets of 30 days for routine requests, and urged the Mounties to deliver results in a more timely manner.
The RCMP agreed, vowing to reduce response times, which had by then hit 86 days for firearms requests.
But five years after that report, labs in Regina, Winnipeg and Halifax were closed during a round of cost-cutting. The Mounties now have just three labs – based in Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver – to provide forensic services for every police force outside of Ontario and Quebec, which maintain their own labs.
In a 2012 statement, the RCMP said the closings would save $3.5-million a year and “improve efficiency, eliminate redundancy and reduce infrastructure costs, while maintaining services.”
Turnaround times at the labs quickly ballooned. Between 2013-14 and 2015-16 fiscal years, the average wait time went from 56 days for routine cases and 10 days for priority cases to 171 days for routine cases and 37 days for priority cases.
The breakdown for last year was an average of 238 days for routine requests and 26 days for priority cases.
The Ontario Centre for Forensic Sciences, by comparison, posted an average turnaround time last year of 41 days for its physical sciences section, a department that works on firearms and documentary exhibits.
“The lab has always been struggling,” Mr. Woodburn said. “They keep putting small Band-Aids over a hemorrhaging lab system. Someone has to take a hard look at this and consider the possibility of reopening and restaffing those old labs.”