Persistent shortage of prosecutors leading to stayed criminal charges, group says
Hannah Rudderham | CBC News | Posted: September 22, 2023 9:00 AM | Last Updated: September 22, 2023
New Brunswick prosecutors burning out as openings wait to be filled, Crown lawyer says
The president of the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Association is once again raising alarm bells about the pressure on prosecutors — and the serious consequences for criminal cases.
Shara Munn said charges are being stayed because of the inability to adhere to the "Jordan decision," a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that set out time targets to meet after charge are laid.
"We're really butting up against those timelines," she said.
"And those obviously are supposed to be sort of the outermost limits, they're not something we just should be trying to stay under in all of our cases.
"But unfortunately, that's where we're at."
There's a stack of files on a prosecutor's desk, and they're just not physically able to get through them all in the time we have allotted. — Shara Munn, New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Association president
The Jordan decision said a person who is charged shouldn't have to wait more than 18 or 30 months for a trial, depending on the the kind of trial. Otherwise, the delay could be seen as a violation of an accused person's rights, Munn said.
Under the Charter of Rights, the accused could argue the delay is unreasonable and seek to have their charges stayed, which halts further legal proceedings.
Munn said even murder charges could be stayed because of the Jordan rules, but these are cases that prosecutors try to make sure get to trial.
"For me, it's the other cases that impact the majority of New Brunswickers that I start to worry about and that our members are concerned about," Munn said.
"It is the things where people are typically victim, you know, things like theft, things like assault and sexual assaults. These are the types of files that we are seeing stayed by the courts."
Munn said she doesn't have an exact number for how many cases have been stayed by the courts but there have been "quite a few."
"I think that the public would be very alarmed and very concerned if they realized that that's what's happening, you know, on a weekly or semi-weekly basis around the province," said Munn.
She said the association has requested numbers from the government for a fuller picture of how many cases have been stayed.
The association has also asked to participate in Public Safety Minister Kris Austin's provincewide public safety consultations that began in the summer.
WATCH | 'These are the types of files that we are seeing stayed':
CBC News asked the department for comment on the association's concerns and for an update on filling the 30 new positions promised in April on top of the 60 or so that already exist.
On Friday afternoon, a department spokesperson said in an email that of the 30 new positions, 18 new prosecutors were hired.
"We want every charge decided on its merits with none being stayed for pre-trial delay. Every case that ends that way represents a failure of the entire system," the statement read.
The spokesperson said the number of cases stayed by the courts is low, and said to date, "the unavailability of Prosecutors has not been the cause of any Jordan stays, rather they have been the result of systemic issues including the availability of witnesses and court time."
Munn said prosecutors are still burning out. Several months after the new positions were added, "we're no further ahead."
"There's a stack of files on a prosecutor's desk, and they're just not physically able to get through them all in the time we have allotted, and that includes working, you know, a whole lot of what I would call unpaid overtime," Munn said. "We're not entitled to overtime.
"Working nights and weekends, reviewing search warrants for police on an on-call basis, none of those things are compensated. And so when you're doing them for an extended period of time, and it's burning you out, and you just feel like you're never going to get ahead of it — that's a really vicious cycle to be in."
But not only that, Munn said, the system has also lost some prosecutors since the creation of the new positions, making the net gain low.
The statement from the Public Safety Department said the 18 new hires represent a net gain of seven prosecutors because the other 11 filled previously vacant positions or replaced prosecutors who retired, resigned or moved into management positions.
Munn said the system doesn't only need junior Crown prosecutors. It also needs to be able to keep senior Crowns who are handling bigger files, such as murder and sexual assault cases.
Munn wants to see a big push on retention for Crown prosecutors. In terms of recruitment, New Brunswick just isn't competitive with jurisdictions across the country, especially for senior prosecutors.
"It is difficult to … attract new members to come work for us when you say 'OK, well, not only do we have the lowest salary, but also our working conditions are pretty awful right now just because of the understaffing," she said.
"We wish we had something more attractive in terms of a compensation package to offer people to get them in the door."