Attorney general visits Perth courthouse, hears concerns Court renovation committee tells Yasir Naqv

https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/7210625-attorney-general-visits-perth-courthouse-hears-concerns/

Ontario’s Attorney General, Yasir Naqvi, has heard that the Perth courthouse needs as many as five operating courtrooms to keep up with demand.

The Ottawa Centre MPP was in town on March 24 “to visit personally” with lawyers and court staff at 43 Drummond St. E., he said in an exclusive interview with The Perth Courier. Having been taken on a tour of the hallways, offices and courtrooms, Naqvi said that he was better able to “understand the flow, the functionality of the building.”

Court staff stressed to Naqvi that the narrow passageways were a major security concern, and Naqvi agreed that “safety and security of our staff is very important,” to make sure that they are “working in a safe environment, so they can deliver justice.”

Naqvi declined a chance to visit the court’s cells, half-joking that, as the former minister of community safety and correctional services, “I’ve seen enough cells.”

“We would certainly need at least five courtrooms." Lawyer Mark MacDonald.

The building is a heritage structure, and Naqvi said that he wanted to “maintain that heritage with the needs we have today.” Having been upstairs in the historic courtroom one, he said that “courtrooms like these are a gem (from a) heritage perspective.”

Naqvi saw firsthand that there was only one elevator that leads to the second floor and, in order for someone in a wheelchair, for example, to access some parts of the second floor, some benches would need to be moved around — something that could cause disruption in the court. In some cases — during, say, family court — those courts may be barred, too.

Before his visit, the likes of Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington MPP Randy Hillier “have raised concerns in the past about age, not so much age as much as (about the) facilities … We need to look at solutions.”

However, Naqvi was coy about whether requested renovations would be included in the upcoming Ontario budget.

Court concerns

“Security is a concern,” said Smiths Falls lawyer Mark MacDonald, before Naqvi arrived. MacDonald is the co-chair of the court’s restoration committee. “This courthouse was built long before security was a concern in court houses.”

The courts' cramped layout was, in itself, an environmental security concern for MacDonald and his committee. For example, he pointed to CAS (Children’s Aid Society) cases, in which there can be up to three adversarial sides — the two parents and the CAS.

“All three will be at odds with each other,” he said. As they wait for their case to be called, “there is only really one space for them to wait.” They may have to spend five hours “waiting with someone you may dislike.”

Also, there is only one major passageway in the courthouse — when there could be need for as many as three, one each for the public, the judiciary, and prisoners.

“We have one common passage,” MacDonald said. “That’s just unacceptable in 2017.”

There are currently three courtrooms in use at the facility — the historic courtroom one, the more modern, though smaller, courtroom two, and a third, small courtroom.

“We would certainly need at least five courtrooms,” said MacDonald.

There are “no proper facilities” for closed-circuit television services (CCTV), meaning that there is “no video remand for bails,” so, at great cost and time, an accused often has to be brought to court, sometimes from as far away as Ottawa, for “mundane” matters that could be done over a video link.

Picking up on the accessibility issues, MacDonald noted that “there’s one elevator that leads to the second floor,” which causes problems. Renovations in 1998 addressed some accessibility issues, when the elevator was installed, which showed that “you can have access in a 150-year-old (plus) building,” he said. “Not only can it be done, it has to be done,” he said, pointing to similar courthouses in Pembroke and Brockville.

“I love the heritage aspect of this court,” MacDonald said.

While acknowledging that the county’s population in Carleton Place and Mississippi Mills is growing, in terms of the number of criminal cases, “the numbers are fairly steady with regards to criminal matters.” With the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which became the law of the land in 1982, “matters are more complex than they were,” he said. A murder case, for example, may have taken two weeks to get through a few decades ago, but can now take up to three months.

“Disclosure is a lot more voluminous,” he said.

‘Critical’ ally

Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington MPP Randy Hillier is no stranger to Naqvi. While they work at the same workplace, Queen’s Park, they sit on opposite sides of the legislature. In fact, Hillier is the official opposition critic for the attorney general’s office.

But Hillier, standing in the court’s entranceway, stressed that “justice should not be seen in a partisan light. I’ve had a lot of good conversations with him. I try to encourage him to do the right thing.”

Back in January 2016, Naqvi’s predecessor as attorney general, fellow Ottawa-area Liberal MPP Madeleine Meilleur, toured the courthouse. However, by last June, Meilleur had resigned her Ottawa-Vanier seat in the legislature.

Hillier shrugged and said that while this may have caused a delay, there was little that could have been done.

“There is going to be a lag, before they (a new minister) get up to speed,” he said. He said he was “hoping” that there would be good news for the courthouse in this coming spring’s Ontario budget. “I’m going to do my darndest to make sure it does.”

He added that any court renovation would “not (be) just important to bricks and mortar,” but also as a way to look at a “unified family court,” and possibly a mental health court, “to improve the administration of justice.”

When asked about the Smiths Falls court, a satellite of the Perth court, Hillier sighed and paused before saying that the “Smiths Falls courtrooms were less than stellar,” and also needed some consideration.

Hillier met Naqvi at the door and the two men agreed to, in Hillier’s words, “make a good courthouse better.”

Perth Mayor John Fenik was also on hand to welcome Naqvi to the courthouse. Fenik hugged Naqvi and said that the town council is fully behind any renovations to the courthouse, and that the mayor’s office continued to have good relations with Naqvi’s office.