The federal government must appoint Alberta justices immediately to address an unprecedented backlog in Alberta courts.
Last October Court of Queen’s Chief Justice Neil Wittmann said the courts were at the breaking point. Seven months later Alberta courts are still waiting for action. This month Wittmann said the problem is now so desperate Alberta can no longer wait for a federal review of the judicial appointment process before appointing justices. He said criminal cases are now being thrown out because of delays in getting them to court. In April charges were stayed in a serious fraud case in Red Deer because too much time had elapsed in bringing the accused to court.
Last week St. Albert-Edmonton MP Michael Cooper nearly blew a gasket in the House of Commons question period when he blasted the federal justice minister for not addressing the problem.
Cooper, a lawyer and Conservative Justice critic, is right to draw attention to the issue.
Alberta has six vacancies on the Court of Queen’s Bench and four on the Court of Appeal. All told there are at least 46 vacancies on federally appointed courts across the country. But the problem is more serious in Alberta because even if its current vacancies were filled, Alberta still has fewer justices per capita than the rest of Canada. Alberta lags behind because appointments did not keep pace with a huge population increases over a decade. A further 12 additional justices are deemed necessary in Alberta to reach the same complement of justices that B.C. employs.
Former St. Albert-Edmonton MP Brent Rathgeber, also a lawyer, said the shortage of Alberta justices is not a new problem and it goes back at least a decade. While Cooper is a first time MP, his Conservative Party was at the helm for most of that decade. Rathgeber also served as a Conservative, before leaving the party to sit as an Independent.
Rathgeber said that delays in getting to court mean sometimes people are being let out on bail for serious offences because there is hesitation to keep them in custody so long.
Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has said the government is committed to reviewing the entire judicial appointment process and making appointments as quickly as possible. Clearly with no appointments in six months the process is not working quickly enough.
When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appointed Wilson-Raybould as justice minister he directed her to make the process of judicial appointments transparent, inclusive and accountable. He did not set timelines.
In the meantime Trudeau has also tasked the minister with a heavy load: legislation on physician assisted suicide, legalization of marijuana, and the inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women, all fall into the justice portfolio.
Meanwhile the justice system is grinding to a halt because of too few justices. Trudeau must give Wilson-Raybould the resources to put justices in place immediately.
The consequences of not doing so could be grim. It is just a matter of time before someone charged with a violent crime has charges stayed because too much time has elapsed in getting the case to court.
