British Columbia’s judiciary will still be woefully short

A story in the Vancouver Sun says:
BC has appointed nine new Provincial Court judges, the government announced Tuesday … move comes as the province faces intense criticism over delays in the justice system, including from judges themselves.

  

Four of the new judges announced Tuesday will be appointed to the Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions, with another two being placed in Prince George.  One new judge has been appointed to each of Nanaimo, Smithers and Penticton.

The judges were assigned in response to the court's specific needs throughout the province, the government said.

Even with these nine new judges added today, by the BC Liberal government, we are still going to be woefully short of what is needed.

A previous report showed a need for 143 full time judicial equivalents ... and last month (January 2012) there were only 121.3 full time judicial equivalents on the bench across the province. That makes us still short 13 judges.

I guess we will continue to turn loose criminals that have been arrested for dangerous crimes, child abuse, drug dealing and more. Obviously this Liberal government has still not received the message that British Columbians have had enough of this.

Just a week and a half ago Samiran Lakshman, head of the BC Crown Counsel Association, stated that, “People who have been in the justice system for decades say this is as bad as they’ve ever seen it.  It’s a symptom of the systematic stripping of funding resources.”

Knowing it is a serious problem, BC Conservatives have been calling on the provincial government to do what must be done.  In fact, just a week ago, John Martin (BC Conservative Justice Critic and candidate in the Chilliwack-Hope by-election) said;

“All British Columbians are now paying the price for this government refusing to take the state of criminal justice seriously.  The justice system is in disarray with a backlog of thousands of cases that are likely to be dismissed altogether.”

 “British Columbia’s Conservatives demand that this Liberal government start taking the sorry state of criminal justice in this province seriously.  They can begin by appointing a full time Attorney General who knows their way around the justice system.”

There is one thing I am certain of, unlike the Liberals, BC Conservatives WILL MAKE public safety, and law and order, a priority.  The justice system will also be provided with the resources it needs to ensure those arrested are dealt with quickly and efficiently .

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops … with the thoughts of one conservative.