What a relief to know the Sunshine Coast's clear and pressing need for a permanent sitting judge in Sechelt is "under consideration" by the Ministry of the Attorney General.
And here we were thinking we'd been forgotten.
One could suggest that, given notice a year ago about Judge Ann Rounthwaite's Dec. 31 retirement, and given that the process of appointing a judge "shouldn't necessarily take long," according to acting chief provincial court Judge James Threlfall, the Attorney General's office could speed up its act a bit.
But that would obviously be uncharitable. Uncharitable, also, to suggest that, as a common courtesy, the Attorney General's office could have been more forthcoming as to why the delay.
Other legal sources have suggested that the province's budgetary constraints are a factor here. And, Lord knows, after a miserable 2009 of watching budgets cut and programs slashed, nobody's going to be surprised to hear a similar story from the Attorney General's office. Depressed, perhaps, but not surprised.
Except that we didn't hear it. All we heard was that the request for a judge was "under consideration."
As we've worked against deadline to get this paper out, I've watched my colleague Brent Richter's growing frustration as a list of specific questions to the Attorney General's office, provided both by email and phone, was brushed off with public affairs' officer Dave Townshend's breezy "under consideration" comment, plus a magnanimous invitation to "feel free to continue to check in with me" about the timing of the decision.
Gosh, Dave. That's swell of you.
The questions were basic, direct and important to our community: questions such as, "Is there a budget for a new full-time judge to be appointed?" and "When can we expect a new judge to be appointed?"
We can all appreciate that we're living in a time of budget pressures and that judicial appointments must be made with care. But meanwhile, with judge time cut from four days down to three and possibly two, the Coast is going to see a growing backlog of cases. According to information obtained from court officials by Gibsons councillor and practising lawyer Wayne Rowe, this could mean 10-month waits for criminal and civil matters and nine-month waits for family court.
This means that, because of at best poor planning and at worst flagrant and unapologetic incompetence from our Attorney General's office, Coast families coping with divorce and custody battles will face devastating waits before they can try to rebuild their lives.
As local MLA Nicholas Simons notes, some of the worst fallout here will be for our community's children.
Threlfall, who has worked with Rounthwaite to advocate for the appointment, said that Rounthwaite "has poured her heart and soul into that community and done everything she could to get the lists under control and get the backlogs down and to be a good representative of the court in the community."
When we see her hard work undermined by the apparent nonchalance of the Attorney General's office, it's time to stop being charitable. It's time to demand accountability.
