The provincial government continues to let the justice system in this community fall apart, and our community can't seem to do much about it.
We are now two weeks beyond the date the Attorney General's (AG) office promised that an announcement would be made regarding the status of a permanent sitting judge in the Sechelt Provincial Court. As you may recall, our community has been without a permanent sitting judge since Justice Ann Rounthwaite retired in January.
Coast government leaders have been applying pressure through regular letters, phone calls and emails.
A delegation even went to Victoria last month to meet with AG Mike de Jong who promised them that this decision was not being taken lightly and that a new judge was imminent.
Well, either de Jong is not well-informed by his staff or else he was just giving the delegation a token answer to get them out of his office. Gibsons Mayor Barry Janyk spoke with Deputy Minister David Lucadelis last week, and his response was, "We're not sure, but the minister is aware of it, and they'll get back to us in due course."
We also contacted the AG's office ourselves and got a one-line emailed response, "No decision has been made yet." That came from senior public affairs officer Dave Townsend.
And it gets worse.
While the government continues to pussyfoot around, court cases are being delayed at an alarming rate, and we have judges coming from the Lower Mainland who are clearly unaware of the lay of the land or of repeat offenders.
Just last week, two people who pled guilty in the break and enter at the Golden City Restaurant were handed suspended sentences and 12 months' probation - a decision that is mind-blowing to the Sunshine Coast RCMP as they have informed us that one of the people released is now back in police custody for allegedly committing another crime against this community. So the RCMP do their jobs and get the criminals behind bars. Then the suspect is released and reoffends. Makes perfect sense, right?
The justice system is this community is a joke right now, and no one is laughing. The frustration is mounting for politicians, lawyers and the police, and there appears to be no relief coming from the AG's office.
How many more cases have to be thrown out and how many criminals let back out onto our streets before de Jong starts to pay attention? We're still waiting for an answer, Mr. Minister.
