Alta. appoints five judges

STILL SEEKING TO FILL PROSECUTOR SLOTS

Alberta’s justice minister says the government has hired five new provincial court judges and continues work to get new Crown prosecutors in place.

Kathleen Ganley says four of the judge positions were created in the last budget, while the fifth was a vacancy.

The province has also filled eight of 20 new Crown prosecutor positions to go with 13 new bail clerks and 40 court clerks.

“We’re working hard to ensure that we fill the remaining positions in an effort to address court pressures that, of course, have been growing over the years and decades in our court system,” Ganley said Tuesday.

Ten of those prosecutor spots are dedicated to addressing a rise in rural crime. Ganley said four of those 10 jobs have been filled.

“It does take some time to get individuals hired,” she said.

“We want to make sure that we have the right individuals in the correct places and sometimes — as is the case with many professionals — it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge to recruit individuals to rural areas.”

She said they’re looking at financial incentives and reduced workloads to entice more lawyers to take on Crown work in rural areas.

The extra prosecutors are part of a $10-million plan announced in March by Ganley to address the rise in rural crime.

That strategy also includes more police and staff, along with specially trained units to analyze and disseminate data to get repeat offenders off the streets.

The new provincial court judges are: Randal Brandt and Sandra Corbett in Edmonton, Andrea Chrenek in Grande Prairie, Robert Marceau in Peace River and Karen Hewitt in Wetaskiwin.

Ganley said the province continues to work with the federal government, which is responsible for hiring judges to hear more serious cases in the Queen’s Bench court.

She said previous Alberta and federal governments didn’t match the appointments with the province’s population growth.

“We’re hopeful that we’ll see more of those appointments coming forward from the federal government because we do know that those resources are very stretched,” she said.

The province has also hired three new medical examiners in Calgary to replace recent departures. Ganley said Alberta has a full complement of five medical examiners in Edmonton and five in Calgary.

The prosecutor hires are part of a provincial initiative launched in 2017 after a Supreme Court decision that set hard targets on the length of criminal trials.

Alberta prosecutors have also been directed to focus resources on violent crimes and winnable cases while seeing justice done as need be through alternative resolutions and crime prevention initiatives.

Opposition United Conservative justice critic Angela Pitt said Ganley needs to work harder with Ottawa to get more judges on the superior courts and to reduce crime outside the major cities.

“New Statistics Canada data showed that crime rates in Alberta, especially rural Alberta, have once again gone up,” said Pitt in a release.

“We hear heartbreaking stories from victims across the province every single day and it’s clear that the NDP plan to tackle this ongoing crisis is failing.”

Last month, the UCP released a report on rural crime that urged the province to tackle court delays through a number of initiatives including temporary court facilities, increased resources for diversion programs and standardized requirements for warrants and evidence admissibility