Social Media Tools Play Important Role In Bond’s Justice Ministry
Sunday, February 19, 2012 @ 7:00 AM
Prince George, B.C. – B.C.’s Justice Minister says the use of social media is playing a very important role in getting information out to the people of the province.
Shirley Bond, who also happens to be the first female Attorney-General in British Columbia, says times have changed and “if we want to communicate we have to be innovative about that.” She says social media is a fantastic way to communicate instantly. Bond says “it’s essential that governments look for ways to open up and create transparency in the things they’re doing, to find ways to engage in dialogue with people that’s very different than it was before. The world has changed and I think we need to embrace that change.” Bond says one of the things she’s looking at as Justice Minister is how important date can be shared with British Columbians so that they better understand the challenges being faced by the justice system. She says you need to be smart about how you use social media, but she believes it’s the only way to communicate as effectively as we can in the day and age we live in.
On the topic of justice reform, Bond says we have some significant challenges and she wants to talk with people about some of the issues that might not be so obvious. She says "while the B.C. crime rate has fallen to its lowest point in the past 30 years and the number of cases going to court has dropped significantly since 2001, the stories we hear every day are about delays and backlogs." Judge Daniel Steinberg in New Westminster calls the current state of the provincial court "abysmal". Statistics show there are more than 7,000 provincial court criminal cases that have been pending for a year or more and more than 2,000 that have been waiting for 18 months. Over 2,500 cases are near the point of being thrown out due to the excessive time in bringing them to court. Bond says “we’ve decided that we’re going to ask some tough questions about how we can improve British Columbia’s justice system. We want to make sure that the people who live in our province have more timely and effective justice services. And it is about looking at something other than simply writing a cheque.” Bond says she will look at adding resources where it’s appropriate when it’s possible “but I think we have some other questions that have to be asked because when you have a lower crime rate, fewer cases in the courtroom, the length of time for court cases is not any longer than it has been, there are some questions that we need to be asking.”
The Justice Minister says those questions will be asked in her ministry’s review being conducted by lawyer Geoffrey Cowper, due to be completed by July. The discussion will include the judiciary, police, the public and other stakeholders. It will look at issues such as using technology to shorten courtroom time and taking things out of courtrooms that don’t need to be there such as family matters, thereby freeing the courts to deal with significant criminal cases.
Comments
Well, when you read about offenders with hundreds of convictions it doesn’t take a lawyer to give you some idea of what may be adding to the problem?
Don’t matter what you do now bond. You and your party is TOAST just as soon as WE THE PEOPLE get the chance to vote you and that useless HST lover bell from office. Call election today and see for yourself.
The Liberals had 12 years in Government to solve this problem. In fact we could say, it is because of them that we have this problem.
They are now (just before an election) going to ask some tough questions, to solve the problem. Duhhhhh. Who is going to beleive anything they say.
Bell, Bond, Falcon, Hanson, and others need to take a vacation from Government. Christy should not sign their nomination papers in the next election. They are all part of the Liberals humungus failure in Government.
Time for a change.
What’s that old saying? “Be careful what you wish for”.
I see the Libs are talking exemptions and credits for the HST ( home purchases,renovations ). If they had only done that when the HST was introduced instead of the iron fist approach……
It seems our political and criminal systems are in the same broken state. Both have become bureaucratic machines that have become excessively high cost and almost total ineffective to the point of being almost useless. Our quality of our politics has been reduced to a group of YES men and women that are solely controlled by big money and bureaucrats. These are the people that actually control what happens in our country not the puppets we vote in. So you can vote in who ever you wish in the end the same big money and the same government bureaucrats still exist and control the strings. We are also not alone in this the two party system in the US is a prime example and look were that has taken them almost to the point of total economic collapses. Their solution to their criminal problems however has become the creation of Private Prison/Factories. Their puppet masters want to put a large percentage of the populous into these jails were they will work for almost nothing basically room board and a few cents.
What kind of a government would appoint someone with absolutely no experience or qualifications to the position of Justice Minister?
Or Attorney General?
And we wonder why our court system has been decimated and rendered useless?
Mind you…this is the same government that appointed the resident B.C.Liberal buffoon Mike deJong…Health Minister!
This does confirm that you don’t have to be particularly bright to be a politician.
You only have to follow blindly and kiss the right amount of butt!
Obviously,to be a B.C.Liberal politician you do have to check your integrity as well as your pride, at the door on the way in!
Hopefully we will have a lot of independents run in the next election. If we could get 5/10 independents we might be able to influence the Government of the day.
She says “while the B.C. crime rate has fallen to its lowest point in the past 30 years and the number of cases going to court has dropped significantly since 2001, the stories we hear every day are about delays and backlogs.” Judge Daniel Steinberg in New Westminster calls the current state of the provincial court “abysmal”.
If this is the case about crime then WHY is there a back log and threats of dropping cases because of such a big back log!
Judge Daniel talks of a abysmal court state, well what is that supposed to mean if B.C.’s crime rate is the lowest in 30 years.
All this tells me is that the Liberals have been running this Province pretty blind if they don’t know what’s going on.
It just goes to show you that they’ve been showing up for work, collecting a pay cheque but doing sweet FA.
How can you keep on doing nothing, when the rest of the world/ and or Province is falling apart around you and/or laughing at you. These Liberals are a shame and an embarrassment and it won’t be soon enough until they are gone. How much more of this mismanagement of this Province are we going to have to take. Fed up!
so we have had core reviews, shut courthouses, cut staff,cut funding to legal services so that there are more people attending court without legal counsel, studied problems, listened?
So what about this newest study is going to change things? This government is now trying to look like they care about our communities. And I say they only care about their corporate sponsors.
And I say you’re right WorkingWoman!
The next time a case is turfed out because of a time delay,we should take to the streets enmass!
Shut this province down for a day or two and we WILL get the election so many want!
How come we can’t do it like the people in greece? They do it all the time they can make the whole country strike. It happens all the time. How do they do it and why can’t we here? Any ideas how to get that started up here in bc? I would happily volunteer my time to see that. I collected thousands of signatures as a canvasser and sure enjoyed the success that adventure was. we should shut this province down until the HST is gone and we get ALL our exemptions back.
It is going to happen in that there are growing amounts of people becoming angry with governments as they generaly do more to people than for them. Thank goodness the fiberals are drawing their last breath.
mattyc: “How come we can’t do it like the people in greece?”
LOL. You want BC to be like Greece? Just wait, the NDP will come to power soon.
A good rant on Youtube should get it started, if it’s worded correctly and you use the right person to do the show. That means “No Politicians”. I’m into a street march in PG for a whole day. (Just make it a nice day)
If you are actually following the issues in greece all of the riots and demonstrations have had little effect big money is still pulling the strings in greece politics not the people on the street! Every effort is being made to try to keep the whole EU economy from crashing down like a house of cards. Greece, Spain, and many others have been living high on the hog and putting it on credit. Now the credit has come due and they do not have the funds to pay it even down let alone off. Debt is just a method for the small percentage that have all the money and power in the world game of monopoly to keep us enslaved. “Debt bondage (or bonded labour) is when a person pledges him or herself against a loan. In debt bondage, the services required to repay the debt may be undefined, and the services’ duration may be undefined. Debt bondage can be passed on from generation to generation.” We work to make money which for most goes towards some kind of debt (car, house, business, credit card ….) We pay taxes which much of goes to pay on our government debt which our children and children s children etc… will continue to payoff. So are we really truly free people?
Ya johnny you keep it up your LOL. You a a moron and although I do not usually bother reply to u because u r a moron and every one else here agrees with that why don’t you just shut the F up. NO ONE agrees wiith u. All u r is a LIE beral lacky and the reason that soon this province is going to get to have a general strike. What u gonna do about it? You aint got enuff jails to put us all into. Soon the NDP will be back and the HST extinguished. COUNT ON IT johnny u moron.
Careful, matty. Your illiterate name-calling won’t do you any favours.
You might want to research why people are protesting in Greece. You might not be so supportive if you did.
mattyc since you seem to believe the NDP will be the end all solution to our problems could you please enlighten us on any socialist government system that has successful worked? Didn’t seem to work for the USSR were the communist dream has fallin, greece has had a socialist government for many years and we can all see how that has ended in mountains of debt. Socialism sounds all find and dandy but for some reason greed always floats to the top.
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