One of the most interesting events in Alberta politics this year passed without comment from politicians and the media.
A woman who spent 27 years working as an Alberta Crown prosecutor and 10 years running the specialized prosecutions branch of the Alberta Prosecution Service had a letter published in the Edmonton Journal. She blamed Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley for a shortage of prosecutors in the province.
A columnist had given Ganley credit for announcing that dozens of new prosecutors and court clerks were being hired to help alleviate a serious backlog of court cases. The former prosecutor, Sheila Brown, objected that Ganley had two years earlier cut the ranks of prosecutors and clerks to save money.
This may have looked like one more in a series of comments about the beleaguered justice system. It was that. But it was also a highly surprising departure. Civil servants do not publicly criticize governments, even after they retire. They certainly do not write letters to a major newspaper saying things, as Brown did, like: "We have to stop giving Minister Ganley credit for fixing something she played a significant role in breaking and that she hasn't, in fact, fixed at all."
That sort of thing happens once every decade or three. Brown's highly unusual comment suggests extreme frustration.
There's much for the public to be frustrated about as well.
Start with hundreds of prosecutions being put on hold in Alberta this year — not just because of a shortage of provincially hired prosecutors but because of an accompanying shortage of federally appointed judges. In October, a senior Calgary prosecutor was still able to say backlogs and delays were leading to criminal cases being tossed "on the trash heap."
Then there's the occasional decision that looks awfully close to a get-out-of-jail-free card. Milowe Brost, the Calgarian convicted in 2015 of cheating about 2,400 investors out of more than $120 million in Canada's largest recorded Ponzi scheme, was paroled last spring after serving two years of a 12-year sentence. His accomplice Gary Sorenson had also been released on parole.
The National Parole Board said there was little danger of Brost reoffending. It also said Brost continued to maintain his innocence, which raises the question of what he'd learned. The board did not say how long the pair had enjoyed spending the savings of the people they bilked on their taste for mansions and expensive cars.
Add the serious criminal cases being put on hold, probably for good, and you get a picture of dysfunction. Much of it comes from budget restraints. All political parties bear some responsibility for that.
Some of the dysfunction also seems to result from inertia in an unwieldy justice system that has evolved out of earlier centuries.
Alberta often seems slow to innovate in this, as in other areas. Police and others welcomed an announcement this year that Provincial Court of Alberta was about to establish a mental health court, a recognition that about 10 per cent to 25 per cent of the 150 new files coming in each day involve mental health issues that are better handled outside traditional courts. Gosh, only 19 years after Toronto established its mental health court.
Other innovations are being tried in various places. There's a movement to cut the number of preliminary inquiries that take up months of lawyer and court time. Manitoba began this fall to establish an independent decision-making alternative for divorce cases rather than running them all through clogged family courts.
Divorce settlements would still have to be approved by a court. That brings up the sticky problem that nearly every method for speeding up the legal system has potential drawbacks. Alberta jails are packed with people being held on remand before trial. Plea bargains may let people off too easily in some cases while possibly nudging some accused in other cases to plead guilty just to get things over with. The province decided in 2012 to let police take licences away from suspected drunk drivers, only to be told by Alberta Court of Appeal this year that inflicting punishment without proving guilt was unconstitutional. (Maybe drunk driving should be dealt with outside the regular legal system, except in cases involving serious injury.)
Even Toronto's mental health court has been criticized by some academics for institutionalizing power relationships over the vulnerable and racial minorities.
Still, you have to wonder if there aren't more ways of getting around traditions that seem to lead to some accused getting short shrift, others like Travis Vader running up tremendous bills as they fight to avoid convictions, and the public at large wondering how creaky the justice system has become.
- Calgary Prime Times, a Great West Newspaper
