Staff
Local MPP Sarah Campbell is demanding that Premier Kathleen Wynne stop the Liberal government’s delay in hiring a replacement for Rainy River’s retiring crown attorney—and ensure the person lives in the district.
“Rather than immediately undertake a search for a replacement, the Ministry of the Attorney General has decided to hire a ‘rent-a-Crown’ from a neighbouring district hundreds of kilometres away—despite the fact that statistics show the Rainy River District Crown Attorney has the highest caseload per capita in Northern Ontario,” Campbell said during Question Period last Thursday.
“Can the premier explain when there will be a permanent resident Crown Attorney for the Rainy River District?”
Campbell said this latest blow to access to justice in Rainy River District comes on the heels of the decision to not replace the resident judge here.
She also noted it serves as a further erosion of services and further marginalization of the area.
“All Ontarians deserve fair and equitable access to justice as a basic right,” Campbell remarked.
“A resident Crown Attorney has knowledge of the area, including knowledge and sensitivity to First Nation issues as identified by the Gladue principle, and is just as importantly available and accessible,” she said.
“No community should have to settle for ‘whistle stop’ justice,” Campbell added.
“Will the premier commit today to hiring a replacement Crown Attorney that resides in the Rainy River District?”
The Town of Fort Frances also has been demanding that Rainy River District receive a replacement Crown Attorney since it received word in December that Robert “Buster” Young would be retiring.
They even made a presentation to Attorney General Madeleine Meilleur at the recent OGRA/ROMA conference in Toronto attended by Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig, Mayor Roy Avis, and Couns. Wendy Brunetta and Ken Perry.
McCaig said previous to that, Meilleur had received letters from the Fort Frances Chiefs’ Secretariat, Big Grassy River Ojibwe First Nation, the Town of Atikokan, and the mayor of Fort Frances, as well as a resolution from the Rainy River District Municipal Association, supporting the need for a resident Crown Attorney here.
“And when we were down there, we presented a comprehensive brief that I spoke to regarding the matter, citing numerous examples where their present solution for providing Crown Attorney services just is not working,” McCaig noted.
And he added Meilleur told the mayor and local contingent that she was going to have to have to rethink her decision.
In the latest correspondence with the town, Meilleur stated the ministry is “considering various options.”
“The District of Rainy River is currently being serviced from Kenora by competent and experienced Crown Attorneys,” she wrote in the letter received March 14.
“The Crown Attorney for Kenora is currently acting as the Crown Attorney for Rainy River.”
Meilleur reiterated the ministry is considering various options related to the Crown Attorney vacancy in the district, which includes a review of the needs of the jurisdiction.
“No final determination has been made regarding the permanent filling of the Crown Attorney position,” she added.
“A final decision will not be made until a complete analysis of the needs of the district has been completed.”
But McCaig isn’t pleased with that response, indicating whether those providing the service from Kenora are competent is not the point.
“We’re saying there are so many issues with them travelling here, and hiccups that are causing the whole concept of the access to justice to be different in Fort Frances and less equitable than the rest of the province,” he remarked.
“The system is not working.
“There’s been numerous issues that have happened over the last little while where briefs aren’t before the Crown when they’re here, they’re in Kenora, or they try to do a hearing by video conference from Kenora here and they don’t have the briefs there,” McCaig said.
“It’s not working,” he stressed. “It’s horrible.
“And without our resident Crown here and the loss of our resident judge, that’s two of the four pieces of the administrative chain of justice that have been lost in some regards because they are not resident,” McCaig reasoned.
“Yeah, they are being provided by travelling resources, but the system is not effective, and it’s not efficient, and it’s not working properly,” he argued.
