Persistent shortage of prosecutors leading to stayed criminal charges, group says

The president of the New Brunswick Crown Prosecutors Association is once again raising alarm bells about the pressure on prosecutors — and the serious consequences for criminal cases.

Shara Munn said charges are being stayed because of the inability to adhere to the "Jordan decision," a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that set out time targets to meet after charge are laid.

"We're really butting up against those timelines," she said.

"And those obviously are supposed to be sort of the outermost limits, they're not something we just should be trying to stay under in all of our cases.

"But unfortunately, that's where we're at."

The Jordan decision said a person who is charged shouldn't have to wait more than 18 or 30 months for a trial, depending on the the kind of trial. Otherwise, the delay could be seen as a violation of an accused person's rights, Munn said.

Under the Charter of Rights, the accused could argue the delay is unreasonable and seek to have their charges stayed, which halts further legal proceedings.

Munn said even murder charges could be stayed because of the Jordan rules, but these are cases that prosecutors try to make sure get to trial.

"For me, it's the other cases that impact the majority of New Brunswickers that I start to worry about and that our members are concerned about," Munn said. 

"It is the things where people are typically victim, you know, things like theft, things like assault and sexual assaults. These are the types of files that we are seeing stayed by the courts."

Munn said she doesn't have an exact number for how many cases have been stayed by the courts but there have been "quite a few."

"I think that the public would be very alarmed and very concerned if they realized that that's what's happening, you know, on a weekly or semi-weekly basis around the province," said Munn.

She said the association has requested numbers from the government for a fuller picture of how many cases have been stayed.

The association has also asked to participate in Public Safety Minister Kris Austin's provincewide public safety consultations that began in the summer.