Court closures create travel issues in St. Stephen, Grand Manan

The closure of courthouses in St. Stephen and Grand Mananis raising questions about travel for peopleaccused of crimes in those communities.

Those courthouses, along with the one in Sussex, will close and merge operations with the Saint John Law Courts, it was announced in Tuesday's provincial budget by the Gallant government. The Grand Falls court will also close and its operations will be merged with the Edmundston court.

Charlotte County lawyer Joel Hansen says the courthouse closures will have a drastic impact on those going through the court system.

"We're not sure how they're getting this idea that they're saving money by moving everything to Saint John," said Hansen. "That's a drastic step."

"Somebody from St. Stephen, who say, lives 20 minutes north from St. Stephen there is no public transit down here. None. So really, it's a mysterious decision in terms of what's behind it."

Hansen says some form of court-related public transit will be needed for the merger to work.

He said many people wh appear in court have mental health issues and have no cars.

Grand MananMayor Dennis Greene said island residents will now have to use the ferry to travel to Saint John for a court appearance and may choose to plead guilty to a minor charge to avoid the inconvenience.

Greene said it will be awkward for an accused and a victim to travel on the same ferry for a court date in Saint John, and lawyer Joel Hansen agrees.

"I suspect in terms of strategy and logistics,a Mountieon the island is going to exercise discretionon whether something is serious enough tocharge," he said.

"Only the most serious charges I'm going to suggest are going to make it to court and putting the victim and the accused together is a serious issue."

Greene said he thinks some people may avoid court in Saint John altogether.

"I think a lot of them, when it's a small charge, if there wouldn't be any jail sentence it would just be a fine they would just plead guilty so they wouldn't have to do the travelling to court," said Greene.

"It's very inconvenient. We're isolated. We have a situation with the ferry that you don't know how long it's going to be operating."

Greene saysthe rental fee the province paid for the Grand Manan court was low and he doesn't see how merging with the Saint John courts will savethe province money.

Joel Hansen says justice and access to it, must be provided by the government.

"We have a county of 25,000 people being told, 'Not that important.'I just don't understand it I see it as this government failing a basic function."