Urging by the Court

It is common for Judges to urge government to take steps to alleviate problems seen by the Courts. Indeed, this very day I saw a judge urging certain steps to be taken by correctional authorities. Unfortunately, these urgent recommendations are often ignored.

Last week Justice Kilpatrick urged an investment in treatment of sexual offenders in R. v. O.P., 2012 NUCJ 23. The case got some attention in the media and can be found at http://www.canlii.org/en/nu/nucj/doc/2012/2012nucj23/2012nucj23.html . His Honour wrote:

[20] The Nunavut Territory has one of the highest per capita rates of sexual offences in Canada. ...

[21] The Community Corrections section has no dedicated treatment program for sex offenders. In the absence of any structured residential treatment program and the trained professionals needed to run it, the rate of reoffending by untreated sexual offenders will continue to increase.

[22] If the Division of Corrections does not allocate sufficient human and financial resources to provide for the assessment and treatment of sex offenders, then even more public funds will have to be found to finance the larger correctional institutions necessary to protect the public from the growing numbers of untreated sex offenders. The Court will not hesitate to use gaol where necessary to protect the public from harm.