Thompson Manitoba’s court system is terribly clogged. Those charged with offences and held in custody wait far too long for their bail hearings, the system is simply over-loaded. The problem has existed for years, despite past valiant efforts to fix it. Now, a group of despairing lawyers is petitioning the higher courts to act to improve the situation.
It is likely the higher courts will end up recommending hiring even more court personnel, increasing the number of flights between The Pas and Thompson, and possibly, building a remand center in Thompson. Unfortunately, none of those changes, or, for that matter any changes within the government’s power to do, will make much of a difference.
Here’s why:
Thompson is surrounded by reserves (First Nations), and wildly disproportionate numbers of Indigenous people from those communities commit criminal offences. Most of the offences involve violence and alcohol – although, increasingly, other drugs are involved as well. The police servicing the reserve communities are chronically understaffed and over-worked. The perpetrators male, their victims overwhelmingly Indigenous and female.
To get a sense of how disproportionate the numbers are, a Saskatchewan study reported that an Indigenous male in Saskatchewan is 33 times as likely as a non-Indigenous male to commit a crime. Manitoba numbers are likely not different.
The reserves are characterized by large numbers of families experiencing welfare dependence and too many affluent families ‘suffering’ from transfer-payment dependence. Although many residents of the communities are decent and sober, too many others are involved in lives of idleness, binge-drinking and drug-taking. These are the people who continue to fill Thompson’s courts.
[…]
