Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 11, 2025, Winnipeg, Manitoba THE PROVINCE OF MANITOBA PUBLIC NOTICE PESTICIDE USE PROGRAM FOR 2025 Public notice is hereby given that The Department of Public Service Delivery, Asset Management-Operations-District 1, 400 Ellice Ave, Winnipeg, proposes to use 2-4 D, Par 111, Ecoclear, Fiesta and Round Up for the control of noxious weeds on hard surfaces and in parking lots. The insecticides and fungicides to be used include: Pyrate 480EC, Landscape Oil, Arbotect, BTK, IMA Jet, Diazinon, Pounce, B-Nine, Rootshield, Botanigaurd and Safer’s End all for the control of insects/ fungus on ornamentals and in the greenhouse. The areas to be treated are several properties under the control of Public Service Delivery. The proposed dates of the application for these programs will be between February 1, 2025, and October 31, 2025. The public may send written submissions or objections within 15 days of the publication of the notice to the department below: Manitoba Environment and Climate Change Environmental Approvals Branch Box 35, 14 Fultz Boulevard Winnipeg, MB R3Y 0L6 3975 Portage Ave 204-885-3330 Ÿ ASDowns.com OPEN YEAR-ROUND & Monday - Chicken Finger Dinner $14.95 & Tuesday - 20% Off Food Items (Reg. Price) & Wednesday - Pizza $15.95 & Thursday - Chipotle Mozza Burger $15.95 & Friday - Steak & Suds $29.95 with a free pint of ASD draft & Saturday - Prime Rib & Wine $29.95 with a free 6 oz. glass of house wine & Sunday - Fish & Chips $16.95 Served from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. AMAZING SPECIALS Daily Lunch Special - $11.95 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Details at ASDowns.com. $200 Cash Draw every Friday, Saturday & Sunday night at 9 p.m. Draws for a chance to spin the lucky Cash Wheel to win up to $100 CASH every Friday, Saturday & Sunday night starting at 6 p.m. Valentine’s Dinner & Dance Celebrate with your special someone or enjoy a night out with family & friends! Featuring our renowned Certified Angus Prime Rib Buffet from 6 p.m. - 9 p.m. Dancing to follow Friday, February 14 Wager on top tracks at ASD, Off-Track locations & HPIbet.com (open your free account today) Book your special event with us. We will take care of all the details for you! Limited tickets are available. Order your tickets today by calling 204-885-3330 Tickets $59.95 (plus taxes & gratuities) TOP NEWS A3 SATURDAY JANUARY 11, 2025 ● ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEWS: STACEY THIDRICKSON 204-697-7292 ● CITY.DESK@FREEPRESS.MB.CA ● WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM Prosecutors gasping under crushing workload plead for help, say public safety at risk Justice under pressure M ANITOBA’S exhausted Crown attorneys are tired of waiting to prosecute their case against the province. Their professional association filed a grievance against the government in April 2023 over a growing work- load that was becoming untenable for its membership. The matter won’t be heard by an arbitrator, however, until October. Manitoba Association of Crown Attor- neys president Christian Vanderhooft turned up the volume Friday, warning that the problem has only grown more urgent in the interim and has now put the public at risk. “We’d like to get concrete action and not wait for an arbitrator to hear sub- missions and reserve judgment and come down with a ruling months later,” he said in a statement, calling for prov- incial leaders to step up with more re- sources to hire more Crown attorneys. “If this government is serious about protecting Manitobans and their com- munities, it must commit to providing the support and resources needed to prosecute crime.” Rising crime rates across the prov- ince and more evidence in the form of electronic data — from cellphones, computers and security cameras and the impending rollout of body cameras worn by RCMP officers — that must be thoroughly reviewed means the num- ber of work hours necessary to bring a case to trial is increasing exponential- ly, one prosecutor said, speaking under condition of anonymity. Several Crown attorneys told the Free Press they are being asked to do too much with too little, are struggling to meet expectations and suffering from extreme stress. Stays of proceedings, or delay mo- tions, are made when the Crown hasn’t met a set of strict timelines for the handling of criminal cases, which were set out in a landmark 2016 Jordan rul- ing by the Supreme Court of Canada. It imposed an 18-month limit in prov- incial court and 30-month limit in high- er courts, from the time the charge is laid to the actual or anticipated end of a trial. Data provided by the province in November showed that the number of motions seeking stays of proceedings owing to delays has increased to 37, up from 27 in all of 2023. The association has seen serious cases, including sexual assaults, tossed out due to excessive delays, Vander- hooft said. “The personal toll is extreme,” a longtime prosecutor said. “I can have a sex assault case where I have to read through thousands of text messages, but I am still expected to do it in the same amount of time (as a case that doesn’t involve any data analysis). “Something has to give — we need either more Crown attorneys or more time to do it. More evidence isn’t a bad thing, but I can’t handle all the same cases I used to handle with the amount of information coming in.” The pot is dangerously close to boil- ing over. “We are all working evenings and we are all working weekends — all of us,” said the prosecutor. “We are all terrified that we are going to miss something and get a case thrown out. It keeps me up at night.” Brandon Trask, an assistant law pro- fessor at the University of Manitoba, said the crushing workload is threaten- ing the Supreme Court timelines and, with it, public safety. “At the end of the day, society gets the justice system it’s prepared to pay for,” he said. “We definitely need to see legitimate investment in the criminal justice system and that includes signifi- cant investment in Crown attorneys in the Manitoba Prosecution Service.” The association’s plea comes as ser- ious crime continues to rise in the prov- ince. In 2024, Manitoba set a record for homicides at 99, more than double the 45 recorded 10 years earlier. Trask added there’s a trickle-down effect when municipalities and the province pour more funding into poli- cing, often leading to more arrests and more cases before the courts. “There needs to be a recognition that if you’re bringing more cases into the system, you need to bring in more Crown attorneys,” he said. “What’s the point of laying more charges if those cases end up being dismissed because of time constraints or resource con- straints? That lack of resources is an issue across Manitoba, with young Crown at- torneys in some rural circuits carrying some of the heaviest workloads in the province, one prosecutor said, adding some experienced colleagues have re- cently jumped ship “in significant num- bers” and moved to other provinces where the pay is better and workload more reasonable. The starting salary for Crown attor- neys in Saskatchewan is “tens of thou- sands of dollars” higher than in Mani- toba, the prosecutor said. The province is advertising to fill multiple prosecution branch vacancies. The Free Press was denied an inter- view with Justice Minister Matt Wiebe Friday. In a statement issued instead, he blamed the former Tory government for failing to address the situation. “Since forming government, we have hired more than 30 new Crown attor- neys and signed a new deal that sig- nificantly improves compensation and will help keep Crowns in the province,” Wiebe said. “To reduce delays in our courts, we’ve made significant strides in hir- ing court clerks, reducing vacancies across the province, including by 85 per cent in Winnipeg, since taking of- fice. For years, the previous govern- ment disrespected our Crowns. We’re taking a different approach and are committed to working in partnership with Crown attorneys on recruitment and retention strategies, supporting them in their critical work to keep Manitobans safe.” Vanderhooft wasn’t buying it. “This government has said over and over again they want to be a listening government: it’s time to listen to those on the front lines of your criminal jus- tice system,” he said. “If the province does not move on this, we will continue to lose experi- enced prosecutors to other provinces and push the system past its limits.” — With files from Dean Pritchard scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca SCOTT BILLECK MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Christian Vanderhooft, president of the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys, says the province needs to hire more Crown attorneys. ‘If the province does not move on this, we will continue to lose experienced prosecutors to other provinces and push the system past its limits’ — Christian Vanderhooft, president of the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys ;