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Local lawyer sounds off on courthouse crisis BY ERIN FAWCETT Express staff
The pressures at the Red Deer Courthouse are not going unnoticed by both legal officials and the public. There has been recent provincial news that criminal cases and charges are being stayed as a result of staff shortages and because cases have been long delayed - Red Deer is seeing the same thing. “Red Deer is probably past the crisis point. It’s been an ongoing, rolling crisis for the better part of a year or two,” said Jason Snider, a defence lawyer in Red Deer and president of the Defence Lawyers Association in the City. There are many contributing factors to this crisis, Snider pointed out. One of them includes a landmark decision that came down from the Supreme Court of Canada (Askov) quite some time ago for delay of cases in the system. “There was a report that came out three or four years ago which talked about injecting a sense of urgency. But the government authored this report and said we don’t want to be losing these cases
based on delay. But then the government put no resources towards the report,” he said. “It’s obvious the government has been playing the game the government plays where they budget for a certain amount and they don’t fill positions and they turn back in the money and they look like they have a savings, but it’s because they don’t fill positions. “They have been doing it across the province, including in the justice system. They are leaving vacant judge and justice slots, they’re leaving vacant clerk slots, they’re leaving vacant support staff slots in the crown office and they are leaving vacant crown slots. It has put pressure on the entire system. It is the government doing by stealth what they don’t want to do publicly which is under-resourcing the system, deliberately, and by not filling positions that are there and not approving hiring.” Another contributing factor to the crisis Snider said is that over the last 10 years, Red Deer has seen a boom in population with no extra supports being allocated to the local justice system. “Red Deer has three Court of
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Justice Sisson stopped sitting in December,” said Snider. “No one has been appointed to replace him.” Snider said there have been instances in Red Deer where cases have been stayed due to delay or lack of resources. “I am aware of one case being
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stayed in the Court of Queen’s Bench because they simply did not have a justice to hear it. I am aware of other cases being successfully stayed through applications because of delay. I have had a case withdrawn in the last few months in provincial court because there were
not resources to hear it,” he said. “A lot of cases are being stayed or withdrawn for lack of resources. And they are not one-offs - it is happening over and over and over for lack of either crown resources or judicial resources or both.” Continued on page 4
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