Council to discuss approach to failing justice system

Cold Lake City Council has decided to have an in-depth conversation to determine what steps a municipality can consider to have the province and federal government take serious action towards meaningful justice system reform. 

After debating the issue and local statistics based on the files of prolific offenders, Council voted to bring the discussion forward to an upcoming Corporate Priorities Meeting.

Corporate Priorities Meetings allow elected officials to freely discuss issues of concern and give direction to administration so future decisions can be made after a fulsome debate. 

“After seeing the stats that were presented, it is obvious that significant action needs to be taken and that the response will need to involve every level of government,” Mayor Craig Copeland said. 

“The federal government is discussing changes to the bail system and, while this is a small step in the right direction, it will be insufficient by itself. The issue is that prolific offenders are being allowed to reoffend without fear of any consequences. The only consequences of criminal behaviour today are felt by the victims – people who must deal with stolen or damaged property, trespassing, assaults, and so on.

“The permissiveness being shown to these crimes is creating fertile ground for an escalation in criminal behaviour, and that is exactly what we are seeing.” 

At its June 10 Regular Meeting, Council saw that one of many local prolific offenders has had 165 interactions with the RCMP and Municipal Enforcement in the last 15 months. These resulted in 45 charges. Of the total number of charges, 58% were withdrawn by the Crown. 

While 13 charges did make it to trial and 11 resulted in convictions, the penalties applied were inconsistent, minimal, or framed in such a way that the guilty party did not have to pay the fines that were levied. 

Council heard that the court system, including the Crown prosecutors’ office, is frustrated by local attempts to enforce bylaws, no trespassing laws, and otherwise maintain public peace and safety. When the City of Cold Lake has refused to drop municipal charges, judges have allowed the accused to pay fines at their convenience and without any deadline or associated penalty, effectively rendering enforcement efforts toothless. 

Discussions with the Provincial Crown Prosecutor’s Office have revealed that the decision as to whether a charge should be withdrawn is often based on the number of matters that is on a docket, their workload, the history that the defendant has with trauma, mental health and addictions, as well as their willingness to seek treatment.

Also taken into consideration is whether the prosecutor feels that it is in the public interest to proceed with a certain charge to trial. 

“The issue with triaging charges is that the worse things get, then more and more serious charges are seen as not worth the courts’ or prosecutors’ time,” Copeland said. 

“Dropping charges seems to be an easy way out for the judicial system. But this allows the accused to play lip service to the courts and offend the next day, with no appeals that can be lodged against the courts. 

“The more we pay attention, it also seems as though the law is being applied inconsistently, and then only when the system has the resources to do so. This can only be defined as a failure of the system and it needs to be taken seriously before things are beyond repair.” 

Council will continue its debate at an upcoming Corporate Priorities Meeting.