A few months ago I posted about problems with the Newfoundland Jury List. Apparently the problems have been remedied:

Embarrassing problems with Newfoundland and Labrador's jury list — which caused a mistrial in May in the high-profile case of a physician accused of drug trafficking — have been resolved, the justice minister says.

Tom Osborne says the old list, which had not been updated in about eight years, has been replaced by a new system that will have real-time updates.

"We've done a dry run of the list, where we've pulled together a pool of potential jurors and selected a jury from that potential pool," Osborne said Wednesday.

"We've then analyzed the whole process and determined that it's working efficiently, it's working effectively, and that there are no glitches or bugs within the system."

The old list was based on data last updated in 1999, and collected by the motor vehicle registration system.

The new list is based on the provincial government's database for MCP, the medicare agency, and is cross-referenced with motor vehicle registration records and the provincial voters' list.

(Tom Osborne as  Minister of Justice? I don't know if you have to be a lawyer, but a University degree would be nice. Depite what people think, it is complicated stuff and I doubt that Osborne can't grasp the complexities when advised. His decisions (not that he makes any serious ones without the OK of Premier Danny Williams, who was quite an accomplished lawyer) can only be political.)

In st. John's, Newfoundland when you call the number listed in the phone book for the Mayors' Office, Mayor Andy Wells, the mayor , answers the phone. It's not his assistant or an automated operator, it's the mayor himself. Never a stranger to controversy he has now made a statement, which I consider to be one his least controversia, which is apparently causing some controversy:

Andy Wells, the outspoken Mayor of St. John's, pictured, has outraged Canadian environmentalists and physicians with his comments that David Suzuki and Al Gore are "junk scientists," and that herbicides in small amounts are safe. From St. John's to Ottawa, Calgary and Burnaby, B.C., communities across the country continue to debate cosmetic pesticide and herbicide use and whether it should be allowed. But while passions often come to the fore in the arguments over whether the chemical treatments for lawn care are safe, it's unlikely that many have stated the case as bluntly as does Mr. Wells. "I think there's a lot of junk science out there that's masquerading as true science,'' the Mayor said yesterday.

Yeah, it is junk science based on nothing. There is not a serious study to show any harmful effects but the fear mongerers continue to spread fear and line their pockets with suckers' money.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary were called to a home by child protection workers when a mother of three children would not cooperate with the said workers in the apprehension of her children. The police then made a small mistake that probably isn't going to sit well with the Newfoundland public (CBC reports):

St. John's police officers used pepper spray on a boy during a confrontation in which he and his siblings were seized from their defiant mother, her boyfriend says.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary was called to the woman's home on Cookstown Road, near downtown St. John's, on Wednesday night to assist child protection workers who had arrived to take three children into custody.

The woman, however, refused to co-operate and barricaded her family inside the house in a confrontation that went on for hours.

At one point, police said, she swung a baseball bat at an officer's head, grazing but not injuring it.

"She didn't want them to go," the boyfriend, who was at the house during what he called a "crazy" confrontation, told CBC News.

....

The boyfriend said the woman's 12-year-old son was pepper-sprayed while he used a stick to keep a police officer from climbing through a window.

At that time, he said, the mother reached for a baseball bat.

The RNC confirmed pepper spray was used in the incident, but would not say on whom.

A negotiator was called and the matter was resolved, however, one would think that pepper spraying the kids you are supposed to be protecting wouldn't be an option.  Apparently one would be wrong in that thought.

Of course, child protection in Newfoundland has been under the microscope since the Dr. Shirley Turner incident who, while accused of murder in the USA of the father of her expected child and fleeing to Newfoundland, her child, Zachary Turner, was placed in her unsupervised care. This was despite protest from US justice officials and from the family of the Dr. Andrew Bagbey (The father and murder victim). The Courts had cleared the procedural steps for the extradition and it could no longer be avoided so Turner then did the old murder-suicide by stapping the infant to her body and walking into the North Atlantic Ocean. This raised more than a few questions about what was going on in the child protection industry in Newfoundland.

As a result, however, we are probably going to see a fair bit of over-reaching on the part of child protection workers. Without knowing the facts of this recent case it would seem, however, that it was the RNC who did the over-reaching.

(Speaking of Dr. Shirley Turner, her kids, or someone representring themselves as the same, will have none of the murder allegations against Turner going unanswered. They are out and about on the internet with the most pathetic defences of their mother including that both Shirley Turner and her child were murdered, Turner didn't have a trial so nothing was proven, the extradition didn't happen, etc. It is sad to read the ramblings and it has come to some serious threats being made against a blogger by one of the kids. However, it is like the mother who will not believe her son died at sea because she hasn't seen the body, denial is part of human nature and we are seeing it. There seems to be little need to continue to debate this poor girl in denial; for her it is reality (it's like debating with a fundamentalist over the existence of God or with a delusional person about the effect of mirowaves) and to continue to do so seems a tad cruel. No amount of debate  is going to bring back Andrew Bagbey or Zachary Turner. No amount of debate will make the survivors feel any better.)

The trial of a Newfoundland Doctor for trafficing in narcotics and sexual assault, has had a second mistrial over jury related incidents. The first mistrial came about when 4 jurors & 2 alternate jurors came to the judge with reasons why they could not serve:

A Newfoundland Supreme Court judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in a closely monitored case involving narcotics.

Justice James Adams made the decision Wednesday in the trial of St. John's physician Sean Buckingham over concerns that proceeding further with the case — in which four jurors and two alternates were excused — may trigger an appeal

Before new jurors could be selected, Adams said a valid argument could be made at a higher court about the detrimental impact of removing so many original jurors and their alternates.

Buckingham is being tried on 23 charges involving sexual assault and drug trafficking. Police say he was illegally dispensing prescription drugs, including the powerful narcotic OxyContin, in return for sex.

The second mistrial has to do with the validity of the jurors list:

Justice William Adams declared a mistrial for Sean Buckingham, a St. John's physician facing 23 charges of trafficking and sexual assault, when his lawyer, Randy Piercey, argued that the local jurors list is woefully out of date.

"I suppose the central issue was that no one under the age of 28 could sit on a jury in Newfoundland, because of the way the jury system was working," Piercey said.

The list of potential jurors has not been updated since 1999, and is based on data collected by the motor vehicle registration system.

Adams said he found it breathtaking that the sheriff's office had the means to update the list, but did not. The list does not include, for instance, people who don't have a driver's licence and people who moved to the St. John's area since 1999.

The Sheriff is John McDonald and he is quite new to the position. If I recall correctly, he was made Sheriff within the past 12 months after a short stint as "Acting Sheriff". It is going to be hard to fault him personnaly, when he wasn't around for the majority of the problem and he has not been there long enough to have rooted out the problem. As well, it would appear that he is not covering anything but calling it human error. His Offices, however, may have some answering to do. With that said, the Sheriff's Office is about as unionized a shop as you will find and answering for things is not the norm. It is clear that someone was supposed to be doing this job for the past 7-8 years and failed to so do. It will be interesting to see the explanation. It will be even more interesting to see if anyone is held accountable.

From a legal perspective, I have not seen the reasons of Justice Adams, however, I suspect that it is a fundamental justice issue. The state prepares the list and limitations to the list reduce the ability of the defendant to receive a fair trial by 12 impartial jurors.

UPDATE: I have been advised that John McDonald is in fact still just the Acting Sheriff. Any culpability on his part is now not just hard to show, it's out the window.

As well, it isn't so clear that someone was supposed to be doing this, though the responsibility is with the Sheriff's Office.

UPDATE II (JULY 26, 2007): Jury List Fixed

Taxes on the poor .... the government is getting back every dime from Bell Islanders where the unemployment rate is over 50% and participation in the labour market at all is less than 50%...

There are fewer than 3,000 residents on Bell Island, Conception Bay, but in 2004 they spent more than $5 million on gambling, alcohol and cigarettes, according to a study by the Bell Island Health and Wellness Advisory Council. Of that money, $1 million was pumped into video lottery terminals.

When the iorn ore mines shut down on Bell Island some 15,000 people moved off the island. The vast majority settled in the Cambridge area and commenced factory work. For those that have remained, work has been scarce and unemployment is now generational.

Heading to Newfoundland for Spring Break for some winter fun. This is where i will be:

...and this is what I will be doing:

...Though I may make a bit of time for this on fake Irishman's day.

The Newfoundland Supreme Court just got a lot stronger. While I'm not as familiar with Gillian Butler (her reputation is quite good), Mike Harrington is simply one of the best litigators in Atlantic Canada if not the country and has a fantatsic ethical reputation. Bill Goodridge is an excellent lawyer and you will rarely come across someone who takes the profession so seriously. The Newfoundland bench is better for these appointments. Serious lawyers with years of practical experience on large complex files generally make good trial judges.

Three veteran St. John's lawyers have been appointed to serve on the Newfoundland Supreme Court.

Gillian Butler, William Goodridge and Michael Harrington have all been appointed to the court's trial division, federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced.

Since Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams appears to know so much about Liberal improprieties from the Brian Tobin days, one would think that he has an obligation to order an investigation.

Williams told the legislature the Liberals have plenty of skeletons in their own closet, and identified some of the issues that dogged the party before the Tories won the 2003 election.

"Some of their friends — Bristol Communications, for example, over a period of four or five years donated $254,000 to the Liberal party," Williams told the house.

"For that they received $20 million in advertising contracts."

Williams also raised a controversial $250,000 campaign involving promotional ads about then-premier Roger Grimes, as well as almost $182,000 spent on a proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric deal, which Williams described as "a project that just never happened."

Williams also noted that his government had restored the ability of the auditor general to review the books of the house of assembly.

"We acted quickly because your government took the auditor general out, and you know where that ended up," said Williams, referring to a legislative spending scandal that has rocked political circles since June.

It isn't good enough to say that you know about the skeletons. The government has an obligation to investigate these matters once they come to light. It is not enough to say let bygones be bygones until you start slinging mud at my government.

UPDATE: I just made a call and it seems a lot of this stuff was investigated by previous Auditor Generals.

A Newfoundland Government in the Black???? I recall Brian Peckford's Government wearing black arm bands and I recall Tobin's claim of breaking evening and no one wore a black tux like Moores, however, the Williams' Government is staring a surplus in the face. Good job. Hopefully, the suplus will go to debt reduction and tax cuts. Combine that with a further decrease in spending and the economy should really start to tick.

Labrador went to the Liberals and they went for cheap. No demand that the base stay open. No getting the road paved. The outcome was never in doubt. Todd Russell is the new MP and he will have the job for as long as he wants, whether or not he ever sets foot in the House of Commons. Pending resignation, crossing the floor or death he is permanently employed.