New system could speed up child-welfare cases

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This article was published 06/12/2016 (3477 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new court-scheduling system aims to curb delays in dealing with child-protection cases in Manitoba — an issue the province’s chief justice is calling a “crisis.”

Manitoba’s family court will no longer be used as a “remediating waiting room,” for child-protection cases, Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said in a speech he delivered at a child-protection legal conference held in Winnipeg last week.

“The current problem of delay in dealing with children in care is a crisis. As with any crisis, paradoxically, it provides all of us with an opportunity— an opportunity to make changes,” Joyal said.

In his speech, a written copy of which was provided to the Free Press, Joyal said a new court-scheduling system will be implemented in the coming weeks to ensure child-protection cases at the Masters’ hearing level are completed within six weeks. For child-protection cases that need to be heard in the Court of Queen’s Bench, trial dates must be provided within three to six months. Currently, it can take more than a year to receive trial dates in a child-welfare case.

Each week for a year, two additional judges from the general division will preside over child-protection hearings in family court, Joyal said.

The chief justice’s comments are being welcomed by those in the legal profession, but it remains to be seen how new timelines will fit into an already overburdened justice system, especially in communities outside Winnipeg that generally have fewer resources, said Brandon lawyer Karen Webb, who specializes in child-protection cases. The earliest available trial dates for child-welfare cases in Brandon are currently more than a year away, she said.

“We’re working at capacity. I don’t know how we speed up child-protection trials unless we get more judicial help,” she said, noting Brandon has only two judges who can deal with these cases.

“There’s a lot of things that need to be worked out. No question, everybody in the room (at the conference) was glad to hear that the courts are paying attention to the problems of delay,” Webb said.

Joyal’s remarks come after several Court of Queen’s Bench family division judges have ruled long delays are infringing upon people’s rights.

Now, a Manitoba couple is heading to the Court of Appeal in a fight to have their child returned to them.

More than a year of delays in the case have violated the parents’ charter rights, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Laurie Allen ruled in July.

Neither the parents nor their child can be identified under a publication ban, but they’ve been involved in a legal battle since their daughter was born and apprehended by Child and Family Services in December 2015. CFS sought a six-month order of temporary guardianship of the child, which the parents opposed, and a trial date was set for Jan. 30, 2017. In her decision, Allen noted the “inherent absurdity” in the fact a trial wouldn’t begin until months after the temporary guardianship order would have expired.

 

“The parents are anxious and ready to have their case heard and decided on the merits in order to determine whether the family can be reunited. Despite their readiness, they must wait from March 2016 to the end of January 2017 for a judicial determination. This situation is prejudicial,” Justice Allen wrote in her decision.

CFS previously apprehended a child from the couple because of concerns about the parents’ mental-health, and their second child was placed up for adoption. But before their third child was born in December 2015, the parents completed treatment programs and indicated they wanted to work with CFS officials so they could keep their baby, who was ultimately apprehended at birth.

A Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled for next month in that case. 

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay