Manitoba justice minister Dave Chomiak recently waded into a controversial federal justice debate when he criticized the Senate committee on legal and constitutional affairs for weakening a bill that would have eliminated two-for-one credit for remanded inmates.

The credit grants individuals two days off their sentence for every one day spent in remand. Chomiak has accused defence lawyers and inmates of abusing the credit by deliberately delaying trials. Some, however, question whether eliminating the credit will solve any problems with the provincial justice system at all.

The credit often puts inmates below the two-year sentencing threshold required for admittance into federal prison, adding to the overcrowding of provincial facilities. Some provincial prisons are operating at nearly double the inmate capacity. Chomiak has said nearly 70 per cent of inmates are there on pretrial remand.

By delaying trials, Chomiak says lawyers are slowing down the justice system and adding to prosecutor workload.

“Defence lawyers, as long as there have been defence lawyers, have tried to slow down the system because it is advantageous for their clients,” said Kelvin Goertzen, the Progressive Conservative justice critic.

Wilf Donaldson, a retired Winnipeg policeman, agreed.

“There are good lawyers and there are bad lawyers,” Donaldson said. “But there’s no doubt that the more they represent people, the more money they make.”

Others believe that inmates have very little incentive to delay trials. Unlike prison, there are no employment or rehabilitation programs available in remand.

“There has been no evidence put forth by any of the ministers of justice that defence lawyers have prolonged remand time,” said Michael Weinrath, chair of criminal justice at the University of Winnipeg, who appeared earlier this month before the Senate committee along with Chomiak and others.

Weinrath conducted a survey of 226 inmates at Manitoba’s Headingley prison in 2007. Based on that survey, the majority of inmates merely want to get to trial without delay, he said.

“Remand is dead time ... There is no remission, no parole ... Inmates are stuck there until their trial comes up,” he said.

Others disagree with the assumption that the elimination of the credit would relieve the workload of the province’s Crown prosecutors.

“I know for a fact [crown attorneys] are overworked. Many of them burn out,” said Jim Cotton, a Manitoba political blogger.

A recent report made public by the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys recommended the hiring of 70 additional prosecutors and 70 support staff over the next seven years. The current average caseload for Crown attorneys in Manitoba is reported at 319 cases.

For more information on Dave Chomiak and the charge that he be held in contempt of Parliament, read Ethan Cabel’s blog.

Published in Volume 64, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 22, 2009)