Court to rework schedules

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This article was published 22/09/2019 (1824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s northern provincial court office is reworking its schedules in response to widespread concerns about how long accused people are waiting in custody before they get to see a judge.

Under pressure to close long-standing gaps in the justice system, which have violated the rights of people arrested in northern communities and kept them from getting access to timely bail hearings, the provincial court plans to allow bail court sessions to run twice as often in Thompson.

Schedule changes set for January will double down on court time for people who are in custody and waiting to have a bail hearing or to resolve their criminal cases. But the changes will come at the expense of trial dates, which some lawyers say are already too scarce. They fear fewer available trial dates will lead to even more delays and will result in more accused people pleading guilty just to get out of jail.

In-custody court sessions will be increased to five days a week from 2.5 days a week in the Thompson court centre, according to a 2020 provincial court schedule issued this month and obtained by the Free Press. There won’t be additional funding or resources to go with the revamped schedule. The changes are being introduced ahead of an upcoming Court of Queen’s Bench ruling on a constitutional challenge, which argued systemic failures in the Thompson court have denied people their right to bail in a reasonable time.

“Access to justice particularly for people in custody is a priority. With no new judicial resources, increasing custody courts in Thompson meant reducing other types of courts.”– a memo issued earlier this month by provincial court Chief Judge Margaret Wiebe and Associate Chief Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta.

“Access to justice particularly for people in custody is a priority. With no new judicial resources, increasing custody courts in Thompson meant reducing other types of courts,” says a memo issued earlier this month by provincial court Chief Judge Margaret Wiebe and Associate Chief Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta.

The message was emailed in August to those working in Thompson’s justice system, including provincial and federal prosecutors, defence lawyers and representatives from the RCMP, court sheriffs’ office and child-welfare agencies. It followed meetings Wiebe and Hewitt-Michta had in July with Thompson stakeholders, part of an internal working group that formed last year.

As part of the new schedule, court sessions conducted via video by judges from outside Thompson are set to increase. The court has also shuffled the schedule for the network of northern circuit courts in remote communities around Thompson, in an apparent attempt to standardize the frequency of court sittings there.

Thompson’s three full-time judges, as well as Crown and defence lawyers, will be required to travel to circuit courts on Fridays, in addition to the several other days each week that they already travel. Under the current system, Fridays were often used as in-office days for lawyers to talk to their clients and for judges to write and research.

“We acknowledge change is challenging and particularly so when a system and people are already under pressure. We know, for example, increasing court sittings and adding circuit sittings on Fridays will complicate the way some counsel currently manage their busy practices. Thank you in advance for your patience and your willingness to work together with us in enhancing access to justice for the people of northern Manitoba,” the chief judges’ memo obtained by the Free Press says. It says the first three months of next year will be a transitional period to see how the new schedule works in Thompson.

“The Thompson court centre is a very busy centre. The number of people who appear before the court is high and often the offences are serious. Given this, the in-custody population is high.”– a provincial court spokeswoman

Wiebe was not available to comment on the changes. In a statement to the Free Press, a provincial court spokeswoman said the court decided, “after looking at its options,” the realignment of existing resources was the best way to deal with the high rate of in-custody cases that come through the Thompson office.

“The Thompson court centre is a very busy centre. The number of people who appear before the court is high and often the offences are serious. Given this, the in-custody population is high,” the statement said. “The court has been trying to address this situation for some time and has been looking to make changes as far back as when the Thompson working group was created.”

January is the earliest the changes can come into effect, the court spokeswoman said, because of previously scheduled cases on the docket.

Nearly six months ago, the Free Press detailed concerns about timely access to bail, transportation challenges, the lack of restorative justice options and chronic under-resourcing of the northernmost court office. The series revealed that it’s common for people who are arrested in remote northern communities to spend several days in custody before they can get in front of a judge to apply for bail in Thompson.

The series revealed it’s common for people who are arrested in remote northern communities to spend several days in custody before they can get in front of a judge to apply for bail in Thompson.

While the changes are expected to reduce delays in bail hearings, some lawyers predict fewer trial dates for the region could lead to longer court delays overall. People accused of crimes in the north are already inclined to plead guilty because they know they’ll get out of custody faster than if they waited to have a trial, several northern lawyers have told the Free Press.

“I definitely have concern as to not having more trial time available, because we all know that people in jail will decide to plead guilty to get out of jail even when they’re not guilty.”– Thompson defence lawyer Serena Puranen

“I definitely have concern as to not having more trial time available, because we all know that people in jail will decide to plead guilty to get out of jail even when they’re not guilty. That just continues the cycle of incarceration for Indigenous people because they plead guilty to get out of jail and then the next time they show up in court (accused) of something, they have a criminal record, and it’s harder for them to get bail,” Thompson defence lawyer Serena Puranen said.

As of last week, short trials that need less than a full day of court time in Thompson were being booked into January. There’s a longer wait for longer trials, and often months-long delays, defence lawyer Meagan Jemmett said. “And that’s just going to get worse if we have fewer trial dates to go around, there’s no question about it.”

Northern lawyers already juggle a demanding travel schedule. Some wonder how they’ll manage to be in two places at once when the new court calendar comes into effect. A new lawyer-video-interview terminal was installed in the Thompson court office a few months ago, along with upgraded wireless internet, but many lawyers still have problems getting in touch with clients who are in custody.

“The Thompson court centre is extremely underfunded compared to other court centres, and no amount of rearranging and shuffling is going to change the problems that come from that,” Jemmett said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca  

Twitter: @thatkatiemay