Heather Latter
Although the district has been without a resident judge for more than a year now, the Rainy River District Law Association and local municipal representatives refuse to let the issue go.
The two groups met with Regional Senior Justice Marc Bode here last Wednesday to continue discussions about the situation.
While both meetings were held in-camera (behind closed doors), RRDLA president Barb Morgan called the first meeting with Justice Bode since the loss of the resident judge “somewhat productive.”
“He did listen to the concerns,” she remarked, noting the RRDLA provided written submissions documenting examples to demonstrate how the relocation of the resident judge position to the District of Kenora has adversely affected residents of Rainy River District.
One example noted the accused wanted to set an early trial date and was prepared to do so at their first appearance.
Counsel travelled from Fort Frances to Rainy River, but the presiding justice of the peace could not set a trial date and the matter had to be remanded for more than two months to the next Rainy River date just to set a trial date.
This increased costs to the client and required extra court attendances.
Another example in a youth matter demonstrated a delay in setting a trial date due to the calendar of judges not being available.
Once the date eventually was set, the presiding judge refused to commence the trial—realizing it would take more than one day to complete and it was the judge’s last day sitting in Fort Frances.
Upon hearing that the trial would not proceed, the defendant suffered a breakdown in court that was witnessed by very young children.
Considerable frustration was expressed by the parents of the children. And counsel was required to re-attend court a number of times to set a new trial date.
The written submissions also showed there has been two accused parties who wanted to enter guilty pleas related to an impaired driving/over 80 mg charge, but were unable to enter a plea because a judge was not available to take the plea and conduct sentencing.
As a result, the accused were outside the 90-day period required and thus were ineligible for the reduced suspension.
The submission also noted that the family court dates in the Ontario Court of Justice have been reduced substantially in Fort Frances from weekly courts to monthly, and that there are no family court dates in Atikokan or Rainy River.
The RRDLA presented in the submission to Justice Bode that, therefore, there are gaps in service resulting from reduced court dates and from reduced judicial presiding time, and that the situation has resulted in a fragmentation of judicial services, a lack of consistency, and certainty.
In addition, that “the administrative functions that a resident judge provides are completely lacking and there are more adjournments, lack of available trial time, and significantly diminished services in family court.”
They maintain that the situation must be “remedied by having a resident justice for our district.”
“[Justice Bode] certainly is receptive to giving some objective consideration to those concerns,” Morgan said.
“Are we going to get our resident judge back? Not likely,” she added.
“Not without a lot more public engagement and I think the district can’t let this go.
“I don’t think it means we will never get a judge back,” Morgan added. “But it is something that the onus will be on the district, the citizens, and the leaders to keep the flame to the fire on this issue.
“I think he had a fairly good appreciation of the concerns and acknowledged that they are legitimate concerns,” noted Morgan.
“But [Justice Bode] wants to have more empirical evidence in terms of the consequences of the loss of the judge for our district in order to go to the powers that be and try and assist us in making a case to have that judge replaced for the district.”
Justice Bode also met with local municipal leaders Wednesday afternoon at the Civic Centre here.
While Mayor Roy Avis had nothing to report from the meeting, Emo Coun. Anthony Leek felt it clarified the judicial system.
“He did a good job trying to explain how the system works in Northwestern Ontario, which was really good,” Coun. Leek remarked.
“It was nice for him to explain how judges are distributed, how they’re based, how they move around.”
Coun. Leek admitted there likely are still some questions out there, but that the meeting provided a better understanding of how the system works across the region.
“I think it’s something we need to continue to look at and continue to pressure towards having a judge based in this area,” he noted, adding if residents have concerns about gaps in services, they need to bring those forward.
“We need to know where those gaps in services may still be happening and making him aware of what they are,” Coun. Leek stressed.
Both Mayor Avis and Coun. Leek indicated that talks and dialogue on the issue will continue.
“The meeting was not the be all and the end all,” Morgan stressed.
