The Nova Scotia government will seek an emergency injunction to end a strike by Crown attorneys that began Wednesday and resulted in some cases being thrown out of court.
Members of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association walked off the job in protest of a bill introduced by the government last week that would take away their right to binding contract arbitration.
“The province has gutted our arbitration rights,” Perry Borden, president of the 102-member association, told reporters outside Province House in Halifax on Wednesday morning while his colleagues circled the block with placards decrying the government’s actions with Bill 203.
“We are here to stand up for our rights.”
The government announced the legislation in a surprise move last week after prosecutors rejected the province’s last contract offer and prepared to apply for arbitration.
Prosecutors voted 81 per cent in favour of strike action at a meeting Monday.
Borden said Wednesday he never thought he’d be in this position.
“I would rather be in my office prepping for files I should be prepping for,” he said. “I’m sure my colleagues to my left and my right would rather be (doing) the same.
“The message for the public is simple: We don’t want to be out here. The government has put us out here.
“The health-care system is fractured. The education system is fractured. Now it’s the justice system.”
Prosecutors also picketed in Sydney on Wednesday.
Asked how long the strike will continue, Borden replied: “As long as it takes for this government to get the point that we’re not backing down.”
Borden said about 15 Crown attorneys remained on the job to handle trial matters in cases involving homicides, sexual assaults and offences against children.
Managers with the Public Prosecution Service and per diem lawyers, including at least one retired prosecutor, filled in for the striking Crown attorneys Wednesday at courthouses around the province.
Most cases were simply adjourned but some were thrown out because the fill-ins were not ready to proceed to trial as scheduled.
At Halifax provincial court, for example, judges rejected Crown requests for adjournments of at least three trials – one for domestic assault, one for impaired driving and one for shoplifting – and dismissed the charges.
At Province House late Wednesday afternoon, Borden said he was aware that other charges were tossed in Halifax as well, including assault, uttering threats, refusing the breathalyzer and multiple counts of fraud.
“One charge dropped is one charge too many,” the prosecutor said.
“It’s a serious day in Nova Scotia when charges are being dropped because Crowns are not in court and we’re on the streets or in the legislature. We want to be in court.”
The government legislation would impose a wage increase of seven per cent over four years. Prosecutors had asked for a hike of 17 per cent over four years.
“There’s a misconception that all of us out here are making $150,000 a year,” Borden said. “There are a lot of Crown attorneys that make $65,000 a year.
“We’re looking for fair compensation for what we do. Most importantly, we’re looking for the spirit of an agreement to be honoured.”
The Crown attorneys were told by labour lawyers that they could legally strike, but Premier Stephen McNeil feels otherwise.
"Crown prosecutors are the hearbeat of the justice system, everything pumps through us."
- Perry Broden, president, Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association
“Our government values Crown attorneys and the important work they do across the province, but this is an illegal strike and they can’t just walk off the job,” McNeil said in in a news release announcing a motion for an injunction had been filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
“This is about protecting the public safety of Nova Scotians and ensuring our court system continues to function. We did everything we could to get a deal with the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association, but they refused to bend. We would, however, still welcome them back to the negotiating table.”
The release said the Liberal government needs to maintain its fiscal plan, ensure the sustainability of public services and keep Nova Scotia on the path of continued economic growth and long-term success.
Borden said the government’s decision to seek an injunction was “rather unfortunate.”
“If he wants to end this strike, all he has to do is give us back our rights and stop being heavy-handed, stop with the blindsidedness of yet another heavy-handed approach to stop us from our constitutional rights,” Borden said of the premier.
It was unclear Wednesday when the motion would be heard.
“If there’s a way to contest it, we will find a way to contest it,” Borden said. “This is not going to make us stop anything. It’s going to cause litigation upon more litigation. It’s unnecessary. All we want to do is get back to doing our jobs.”
He said various members of the opposition parties have approached him at the legislature over the past week to talk about the Crown attorneys’ predicament.
“Since I’ve been here, not one member of government has approached us to just have a discussion as to what’s going on,” Borden said. “It’s unfortunate that taxpayers are paying these people to be here, yet they don’t want to hear for themselves what brings us here.
“We are here on a legal strike. They are essentially silencing us by not allowing us to have a voice in this process.”
Rick Woodburn, a Halifax prosecutor who is president of the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel, said the strike is of interest to people in the legal community across the nation.
He said prosecutors in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have contracts that are ending soon.
“Governments in their areas are threatening almost the exact same thing,” Woodburn said. “They’re threatening to come down and take away their rights just like they’re taking away (our) rights here.
“So the rest of the country is very interested in what’s happening here. If we back down, every government across the country will know that Crown attorneys will back down. But we are not going to do that. We are not going to do it locally, we are not going to do it regionally and we’re not going to do it nationally.”
Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston said the premier continues to disrespect the hard work that the Crown attorneys do every single day.
“They’re exercising their right to bring attention to the fact that what they’re doing is important work,” Houston said.
“They could make a lot more money working in private practice if that was what motivated them. But what they want is safer communities. What they want is respect from the government. What they want is the government, the premier that signed a contract with them, to honour it. That’s all they want.”
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