Good news exposes a lot of bad in overwhelmed justice system

It doesn’t happen very often in Manitoba’s justice system that Crown prosecutors and criminal defence lawyers see eye to eye.

They are adversaries by design. One’s job is to prosecute, the other’s job is to defend. They clash daily in courtrooms over disclosure, bail, sentencing and the interpretation of the law. Agreement is rare.

So when both sides say the system is starved for resources — particularly in the courts and the prosecutions branch — government should listen.

This week’s update on Winnipeg’s new bail compliance unit was, on its face, good news. In just two months of operation, the 12-officer team has arrested 109 people accused of breaching their bail conditions and submitted warrants for another 227. That’s 336 offenders in a matter of weeks.

The Winnipeg Police Service conducted 922 compliance and wanted-person checks. Deputy Chief Cam Mackid says the numbers are accelerating, with officers now doing between 50 and 100 checks per day. The unit is targeting high-risk offenders, including those known to be violent and people charged with intimate partner violence.

No reasonable person would argue against enforcing bail conditions, particularly for accused persons who pose a danger to the public. If someone is ordered to abide by a curfew, avoid contact with a victim or stay away from weapons and they ignore those conditions, there must be consequences.

But here’s the problem: every arrest sets off a chain reaction in a justice system that is already buckling under the weight of too few prosecutors and support staff.

That’s not hyperbole. It’s a shared assessment from the very people who work in the system every day.

Ben Wickstrom, vice-president of the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys, put it plainly. New resources for bail enforcement may be helpful, he said, but prosecutors are “overworked and overwhelmed right now.” More arrests don’t magically create more Crown attorneys to handle the files. They don’t create more court time. They don’t reduce existing backlogs.

Christopher Gamby of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba said much the same thing. The courts need more capacity. People are presumed innocent until proven guilty. We don’t want accused persons languishing in remand for months on end waiting for their day in court because the system can’t process their cases in a timely way.

When prosecutors and defence lawyers are making the same argument, government should pay attention.

The new bail compliance unit, first announced two years ago with a $3-million commitment, is designed to be proactive and targeted. Police have developed an analytical tool that provides officers with detailed information about people out on bail — their address, charges, curfews and last police contact. It’s data-driven and risk-focused.

It’s smart policing.

But even Mackid acknowledged that the surge in arrests could strain other parts of the justice system. Every new breach charge requires a Crown to review the file, assess the evidence, determine whether to proceed, appear in court and respond to bail variations.

And let’s be clear about the stakes. If cases are delayed too long, they can be thrown out under the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jordan decision, which sets strict timelines for bringing matters to trial. Justice delayed is not only justice denied — it can be justice derailed altogether.

That serves no one. Not victims. Not accused persons. Not the public.

There is a political temptation to treat bail enforcement as a silver bullet. The optics are appealing. Police are seen to be cracking down. Numbers are cited. Arrest totals climb. It sends a message.

But if the back end of the system can’t keep up, the message quickly turns into frustration. Charges get stayed. Court dates get pushed further and further out. Accused persons sit in remand, where conditions are notoriously harsh, awaiting proceedings that crawl along at a glacial pace.

If government truly wants to keep dangerous offenders off the street, it needs to fund the entire system, not just the front end.

That means hiring more Crown attorneys. It means ensuring there are enough court clerks, sheriffs and support staff. It means modernizing processes so cases move efficiently without sacrificing fairness.

The solution is not to warehouse every accused person in pre-trial detention. The solution is to ensure that when someone truly poses a risk to public safety, the Crown has the resources to make a strong case for detention and the courts have the capacity to hear it promptly.

The irony is that the success of the bail compliance unit may actually expose the system’s weaknesses more starkly than ever. If 336 arrests in two months represent just the beginning, what happens six months from now? A year from now?

Will prosecutors be expected to simply work longer hours? Will court dockets expand magically?

There’s nothing wrong with holding people accountable for breaching bail. In fact, it’s necessary. But accountability must be matched with capacity.

When the people who argue against each other every day in court agree that the system is under-resourced, that’s not noise. That’s a warning.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca