Word Of Judicial Appointments Comes As NDP Decries Court Delays
Prince George, BC – News of the appointment of nine new Provincial Court judges comes on the heels of the New Democrats issuing another call for the Liberal Government to address the massive court delays in the province.
Prior to attending a roundtable discussion on public safety issues in the Okanagan today, NDP critic for the Attorney-General, Leonard Krog, pointed out that the number of cases on the verge of being thrown out because of unreasonable delays sits at more than 2,500.
And Krog says the Liberals have asked the Criminal Justice Branch to cut $6-million dollars from its budget this year, while slashing the province’s legal aid budget by 35-percent.
"The extensive cuts the Liberals have made to the justice system over the years has resulted in the dramatic increase of judicial stays of youth and criminal cases that we’re seeing in BC courtrooms today," says the NDP critic. "We spend millions at the front lines, yet when criminals are brought to cour and the system takes over, cases fall apart without the necessary resources in place."
Two of the nine new judges appointed today will serve Prince George, while a third will serve Smithers.
Comments
Along with the shortage of judges, part of the reasons for failure to provide timely trials is the shortage of bailiffs and other court support personnel. Is the Liberal Government going to hire more of these people as well or do they expect already overworked support staff to do even more? If they do hire them, how long before they are adequately trained and how long before the increase in cases being heard makes a dent in the 2500 backlog? I suspect that eight judges is not enough.
While the Federal Conservatives are committed to building more prisons and increasing mandatory sentencing, the Provincial Liberals seem hell bent on providing inadequate funding so that trials take years to get to and the accused, the innocent as well as the guilty, can’t get lawyers to represent them due to the cutbacks in funding.
After ten years of Liberal control we have a completely dysfunctional justice system, and that is no justice at all.
Wow! Sounds like the NDP were caught flat footed with this announcement, (Didn’t know it was coming? Asleep at the wheel?)
Business as usual for the NDP. Perhaps they and the Conservatives can get together and figure out why they didn’t know what was going on. Just seems from what I’m reading both parties were out to lunch, caught with their pants down. Good to see one of our MLA’s working towards fixing the problem.
Comments for this article are closed.