Federal Crown taking steps on northern justice issues

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This article was published 07/01/2020 (1815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s chief federal prosecutor says his office is examining its practices in the wake of two recent rulings that call for an independent review of the northern justice system.

“This is something that we do take seriously and we want to be responsive to concerns of the courts, which reflect the concerns of the community, and we’re taking steps to do so,” said Michael Foote.

The federal office is considering placing a prosecutor on duty after hours to fill what Foote acknowledged is a gap in service after 5 p.m.

For now, his office has asked provincial Crown prosecutors to step in when someone is arrested on federal charges. The Crown can review the case and determine whether that person should be released on bail immediately after arrest, rather than spending days or even weeks in jail waiting for a bail hearing in front of a judge.

“We recognize that we have to be responsive to the needs of the people in these northern communities in particular, and we have to make sure that we’re able to address their concerns, and this is how we’re doing it. It’s not something that we want to leap into without having given it due thought,” Foote said.

He spoke to the Free Press after two separate court decisions shed light on problems with the bail-court system in northern Manitoba.

One of the rulings, issued Dec. 18 by The Pas provincial court Judge Malcolm McDonald, criticized the federal Crown’s office for not consulting with police after drug-related arrests in northern communities. This led to police automatically jailing a Norway House woman, Amy Crate, who had no criminal record.

She was held for two days without a bail hearing in February 2018, only to be released by consent of the Crown attorney after she was transported about 300 kilometres north to court in Thompson.

“The practice of the federal Crown to not be actively involved in custody remand decisions from outlying communities into Thompson is a practice that should be reviewed,” McDonald wrote.

Foote said he believes Crate’s case was a one-off, but acknowledged federal prosecutors hadn’t been consulting with police about whether individuals arrested in remote communities should be held in custody or released to appear in court at a later date.

The 25 Manitoba Crown attorneys who work for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada are based in Winnipeg.

The federal prosecution service is responsible for prosecuting charges, such as drug possession and trafficking, that fall under federal law — other than the Criminal Code, which is handled by provincial prosecutors. One federal Crown is assigned to each of the northern circuits across the province.

“Because the volume of federal cases is quite low compared to provincial cases, we have traditionally relied on the police to use their good judgment in making those decisions with respect to release,” Foote said. “As you saw in the Crate decision, there were some problems with respect to that.

“So we are in the process of examining how we do things, and we’re going to be more responsive to some of those issues that the courts had indicated ought to be addressed.”

McDonald’s decision in Crate’s case came on the heels of a Nov. 14, 2019, landmark ruling from Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Chris Martin. Martin called for an independent review of “dysfunctional” bail courts after ruling two northern Manitobans’ rights were violated because they spent 51 days and 23 days, respectively, in custody without a bail hearing.

The province has a plan in the works to set up a weekend bail pilot project in Thompson, the judicial centre of northern Manitoba, staffed by provincial Crown attorneys and private defence lawyers. A plan to run bail court five days a week in Thompson, instead of 2.5 days, came into effect at the beginning of January.

A representative from Manitoba RCMP didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

 

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay