Crown attorneys say working conditions approaching crisis level

Crown prosecutors in Manitoba are raising the red flag. 

The Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys is calling on the government to meet with Crown lawyers to improve working conditions, saying right now, the strain of rising crime, more complicated cases and lacking staff, is becoming too much. 

“This government has failed to take meaningful action to address the workload problem for Crown Attorneys in Manitoba,” said Christian Vanderhooft, the association’s president in a news release. “At the same time, the expectations put on prosecutors and complexity of the work done by them has never been more intense.”

An official grievance with the Government of Manitoba was filed back in April 2023, according to the MACA, but it won’t be heard by an arbitrator until 2025, the association claiming mounting pressures and delays are starting to put “the public at risk.”

Vanderhooft says the situation is becoming dire to the point where the carriage of justice may be jeopardised, and while there’s been meetings between the government and Crown attorneys,  there’s been no action. 

“Eventually it becomes challenging to properly discharge your professional responsibilities,” said Vanderhooft in the news release.

“If the government is committed to the administration of justice in this province, we can’t leave this for an arbitrator to figure out. This government has said over and over again they want to be a listening government: it’s time to listen to those on the frontlines of your criminal justice system.” 

The news release explained Crown lawyers are being asked to work faster than ever under immense workloads and stresses the introduction of body-worn cameras by the RCMP will only increase workloads, especially for regional and circuit offices. This at a time when Manitoba is seeing a record number of homicides, with 99 recorded in 2024, a figure the MACA says is more than double the 45 recorded a decade ago.

Vanderhooft says lawyers are already fleeing the province because of the conditions.

“If this government is serious about protecting Manitobans and their communities, it must commit to providing the support and resources needed to prosecute crime,” he said in the statement.

“If the province does not move on this, we will continue to lose experienced prosecutors to other provinces and push the system past its limits. We need leadership from the government to keep our streets safe. All Manitobans depend on it.”

Manitoba’s Attorney General Matt Wiebe pointed to the last government as the root of the issue, going as far as saying Crown attorneys had been disrespected in the past.

“We’re taking a different approach and are committed to working in partnership with Crown attorneys on recruitment and retention strategies, supporting them in their critical work to keep Manitobans safe,” he said in a statement.

Wiebe says the system was previously deprived of resources needed to hire Crown attorneys and court clerks, but it’s a pattern the province is now working to address.

“Since forming government, we have hired more than 30 new Crown attorneys and signed a new deal that significantly improves compensation and will help keep Crowns in the province,” said Justice Minister Wiebe in the statement to CityNews. “To reduce delays in our courts, we’ve made significant strides in hiring court clerks, reducing vacancies across the province, including by 85 per cent in Winnipeg, since taking office.”