Chief Nunavut justice asks Ottawa for more judges

Just months after sending two new judges to Nunavut, the federal government is considering appointing another two members of the bench to help deal with the Arctic territory's soaring rate of violent crime.

The consideration comes after a pleading letter to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson from Robert Kilpatrick, chief justice of the Nunavut Court of Justice.

"For the last decade, the Nunavut territory has experienced an unrelenting and accelerating rate of serious violent crime," Kilpatrick wrote.

"The Court's present complement of four judges cannot service the existing volume of violent crime without additional assistance."

The request comes despite the appointment of two deputy judges in April to help the territory's four justices deal with the workload. Deputy judges are judges from other jurisdictions who come to Nunavut to help out temporarily.

Pamela Stephens, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said the federal government will respond to the letter in due course.

Kilpatrick's letter carefully documents Nunavut's increasing violence.

The number of Criminal Code charges has increased 40 per cent since 2002.

There were nearly 12,000 such charges in 2009. That's more than one charge for every three residents.

"There are now more homicides pending in the Nunavut Court of Justice than in the other two territories combined," Kilpatrick wrote.

In 2006, Nunavut's rate of violent crime was four times the national average. In 2007, its rate of domestic violence was 13 times the national average for women and 14 times the national average for men.

Last year, its rate of sexual assault was 10 times higher than the rest of the country.

Kilpatrick points out that justice in Nunavut has unique problems, such as translation back and forth from Inuktitut and the time involved in sending judges on travelling circuit courts throughout the far-flung territory.

In 2002, the court held 42 regular circuit sittings. This year, there are 60 sittings scheduled so far, requiring three travelling judges to fly a total of 144,829 kilometres.

"The Nunavut Court of Justice has been significantly under-resourced for much of the last decade," Kilpatrick wrote. "There is a limit to what can of should be expected from the resident judiciary ... This limit has now been reached."

Nunavut Justice Minister Keith Peterson has already told his federal counterparts he supports Kilpatrick's request.

The lack of judicial time only adds to trial delays caused by the complexity of juggling travel in the North, he said. Not only judges have to travel, so do witnesses, prosecutors and court staff such as clerks.

"It delays things," said Peterson. "A person can could go to court and plead not guilty and the next court date might not be for three or four months."

He said the lack of judges is only one symptom of an under-resourced judicial system. More money for alcohol counselling, anger management or parenting classes could keep many people out of the justice system altogether.

"We do need more resources at the community level."

Chris Debicki, who ran Nunavut's legal aid clinic for four years until June 2009, said deputy judges on temporary secondment from other jurisdictions are no substitute for a resident bench.

"Those judges have to familiarize themselves with context that local judges would take for granted," he said. "Lawyers spend more time court talking about context.

"The availability of judges is probably the greatest factor in terms of the time it takes to something from the beginning of the court process to an end point."

Debicki said that although the court process can take even longer in some southern jurisdictions, the crime rate in Nunavut is so high that delays have a much greater effect on the entire community.

"It effects everyone," he said. "Every family knows someone involved in the legal process."