Heather Latter
Municipal leaders banded together Saturday to oppose a plan which would result in the relocation of the resident judge for Rainy River District to a base in Kenora or Dryden.
Local lawyer Wes Derksen, representing the Rainy River Law Association (RRLA), also was on hand at the Rainy River District Municipal Association’s 21st-annual general meeting in Devlin to protest the plan, which was put into motion by the Ontario Court of Justice in December when it decided not to replace Judge Thomas McKay when he moves to London, Ont. in May.
The relocation would mean Kenora District would increase its number of resident judges from three to four while Thunder Bay has six.
And it would leave Rainy River District with none.
“Losing a judge is losing a lot,” Derksen stressed. “It’s losing a person who is supposed to be a pillar in the community.”
He noted that not having a resident judge in the district would be just another loss of services here and likely would lead to even more closures.
The change also could result in limited court scheduling, delays in criminal and family court proceedings, increased costs for clients, and more travel for the Kenora- or Dryden-based judge.
“Who is going to want to come here if there is no judge?” asked Derksen, admitting that if he was a new lawyer, even having grown up in the area, he probably wouldn’t return without there being a resident judge.
Many district leaders, including First Nations’ representatives and the RRLA, voiced their objections to Marc Bode, Regional Senior Judge for the Northwest Region, during a teleconference last month.
They are requesting a face-to-face meeting to continue discussing the issue.
“The municipal leaders will determine what comes out of this, I think,” said Derksen, urging the RRDMA to keep up the fight.
“Do something, whether it’s making another phone call or writing another letter,” he stressed.
“I think we’re justified in having a judge here who can also help out in other areas.”
As it stands now, a Fort Frances-based judge would be required to provide more than half of his or her time sitting outside the Rainy River District.
“The change in base courts simply will make it easier for the court to distribute the judicial workload, and in particular the very significant travel associated with that workload, more evenly among the judiciary,” Bode wrote in a letter dated Dec. 7 to Barb Morgan, president of the District of Rainy River Law Library Association, which was printed in the Fort Frances Times the following week.
“The designation of the next judge’s base court as Kenora or Dryden will not be a factor in determining the amount of judicial time the communities in the District of Rainy River will receive,” he maintained.
Yet municipal leaders will fight because area residents have the right to local legal representation and to access judicial services.
“Justice Bode is making this case based on a business model,” Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig said at the RRDMA meeting.
“These services are demanded and needed,” he stressed. “And I think we need to keep pushing.”
The RRDMA passed a lengthy resolution Saturday opposing this plan and supporting the continued presence of a full-time resident judge for Rainy River District, as well as supporting the submissions and actions of the area First Nations in maintaining that presence.
In addition, it resolved that “the pleas and petitions of the RRDMA, the area First Nations, and the people and the communities they represent, be listened to and action be taken to ensure that there is proper consultations and oppositions to be heard and considered.”
The resolution also makes clear the RRDMA support for “the mandate set forth by the former Attorney General, the Honorable Michael Bryant, in 2005, for the recruitment of a full-time resident judge of the Ontario Court of Justice for the District of Rainy River and the resulting appointment accordingly.”
