The national legal groups are raising the alarm on a decision of the Edmonton Police Service to publicly oppose a guilt agreement for a case of homicide in the midst of the judicial process.
The lawyers who talked to CBC News said that it is an unprecedented step that runs the risk of undermining confidence in the justice system and blurring the independent roles of the police and the prosecutors.
The director of the Criminal Justice Program of the Canadian Association of Civil Liberties (CCLA), Shakir Rahim, said the letter attracted immediate concern.
“It is clearly against the letter, and outside the role of the police, make a statement like this,” he said.
“We do not live in a country where the police decide who is guilty and what should happen to them.”
EPS published a letter last week, the day before the accused woman in the case was due in court, denouncing the acceptance of the crown of an involuntary homicide statement instead of proceeding to a trial for murder in the death of an eight -year -old girl.
The letter, sent by the interim boss Warren Driechel and signed by EPS lawyer, Megan Hankewich, asks the Vice Minister of Justice Assistant of Alberta, Kimberley Goddard, who intervenes and acts that he leaves the guilt agreement.
He also referred to an agreement for an eight -year judgment in the case, but in the Court last Wednesday, the prosecutor of the crown Terry Hofmann said there is no joint submission about the duration of the woman’s sentence.
Hankewich talked more about the subject at a press conference after a judge accepted the involvement supplication of involuntary homicide last Wednesday.
She said the letter is the culmination of years of frustration for EPS efforts to communicate concerns about criminal cases with crown prosecutors.
“When our system fails, and to be clear, we believe that it has failed today, that must also be done in view of our community,” said Hankewich.
His letter says that if the plea and the sentence continue, EPS plans to publish “significant information” of the investigation to the public so that he can evaluate it “and advocate in the public forum for a stronger prosecution service.”
The Edmonton Police Service is asking for a provincial intervention on an agreement that saw a woman guilty of homicide in a case of child homicide. Police say that the agreement is a “significant spontaneous abortion of justice.”
Fiscal independence is considered a cornerstone of the criminal justice system. That means that the crown should be able to evaluate cases and make decisions without external interference, Rahim said.
“I think it is important, when there is a case as clear as this, where the conduct was as out of the rules of what the police should be doing, that we take a very firm position and say: ‘This is not allowed'”.
After the EPS letter was made public last week, Alberta Prime Minister Danielle Smith said he was glad to see her.
“People are tired of seeing a lax approach to crime,” he said during an unrelated press conference last Wednesday.
“People want to see that people will be punished with the maximum capable of law, and sometimes that can only happen with a trial. So I hope to hear that the crown prosecution service justifies their reasons.”
When asked if Alberta Minister of Justice, Mickey Amery, supports the position of the Prime Minister, his press secretary told CBC News on Monday: “The Alberta government respects the fiscal independence of the Service of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Alberta Crown (ACPS).”
‘Bring that disagreement to the public eye’
Edmonton’s defending lawyer, Deborah Hatch, director of Alberta of the Canadian Criminal Defense Lawyers, said EPS’s comments shocked the legal community.
“Seeing a prime minister to intervene to support this is also really shocking,” he said.
Hatch said the police are not necessarily aware of all the information that prosecutors are seeing when they make decisions about a case.
She believes that the leadership of the EPS, and those who speak by EPS on the subject, should apologize for “creating a misunderstanding” among the public about how the system is supposed to work.
“The independence of the courts, the independence of the police and the independence of the Prosecutor’s Office, all these things must be respected so that the system works correctly,” Hatch said.
“The police know it. And if they don’t know, then we have a real problem. And if they know and are talking as they are, then we also have a problem.”
Another national lawyers, women in Canadian criminal defense, also issued a statement last week in support of the independence of the prosecutors of the Crown, saying that it is “dangerous and unconstitutional for a police service to lose sight of the respective roles of the crown and the police in the legal system.”
With the sentence in the case at the center of the police comment that is still approaching, and two men put themselves to an indignity trial to a body and accessory for murders, ACPS has denied the comments to avoid potentially harming the right of a defendant to a fair trial.
Breena Smith, president of the Alberta Crown Association, also told CBC News that he will not comment while the case is ongoing.
Chris Samuel, former federal prosecutor and president of the Alberta branch of the Canadian Bar Association, said it is not unusual for the police and prosecutors to disagree.
“But what is really worrying and different in this situation is to bring that disagreement to the public eye like this,” he said.
Samuel said it is understandable that people express their views and emotions in tragic cases like this, but the courts are configured with clear controls and balances for a reason.
“The justice system in general needs to have integrity and must be respected by the public. And when that trust and respect are eroded, I think it can lead to some really negative results, so that perhaps that is the concern I have in this case.”
