prince edward island
Judge takes issue with tough-on-crime remarks
CBC NewsP.E.I.'s top provincial court judge is speaking out against allegations by Charlottetown's mayor that the justice system is to blame for some of the city's property crime.
Mayor Clifford Lee recently suggested the courts were partly to blame because they were releasing too many people immediately after they were charged.
Judge John Douglas told CBC News Wednesday that locking up everyone before they're convicted isn't the answer.
"The presumption of innocence is not a protection for the guilty. It's there to protect you and I," said Douglas.
"Any attempt to reduce that presumption or limit its effect should be resisted."
Ottawa must pay for new Island jails: union
CBC NewsThe federal government has to help pay for the increase of prisoners expected in provincial jails as the result of proposed changes to the Criminal Code of Canada, the P.E.I. Union of Public Sector Employees says.
Shelley Ward, president of the union that represents correctional officers, said Island jails are already overcrowded, and it's posing a safety risk for her members.
"We have had reports from our members that there's been quadruple bunking in places, that inmates are also kept out in hallways because there's no room to put them in," Ward said Friday.
"So, that creates a safety risk for our correctional officers and our inmates also." Read more »
Burnside jail managers fired after inmate suicide
CBC NewsTwo managers at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Burnside have been fired after a suicide in the facility in April.
The Nova Scotia Government and General Employees' Union, which represents staff at the provincial jail, confirmed the dismissals.
NSGEU president Joan Jessome said Wednesday that the two managers were let go at the same time that seven of her members were disciplined.
The unionized employees have 25 days to decide if they will file a grievance.
On Tuesday, Justice Minister Ross Landry said an internal review found employees did not follow protocol. On Thursday, he said the managers were fired as a result of their performance and not because of the suicide.
"It saved my life": Methadone treatment program
By: JIM DAY, The GuardianWhen the methadone maintenance treatment program was first piloted on P.E.I. in 2004, Dr. Don Ling was expecting many failures.
Ling, a medical consultant with the Provincial Addictions Treatment Facility (PATF), thought he was being optimistic in hoping for just half the patients in the program to emerge as "success stories'. That would, of course, leave a whopping 50 per cent to continue to wallow in their troubled world of drug addiction.
Ling's initial forecast has been proven wrong -- pleasantly so, in fact.
"I think the success of this program is 80 per cent plus,' he said.
Tories "dropped ball" on selling prorogation: Duffy, PEI Senator also rules out legalizing marijuana and proportional representation
By Desmond Devoy, Ottawa East EMCEMC News - Senator Mike Duffy has admitted that the Harper government "dropped the ball," in explaining the reasons behind its decision to prorogue Parliament.
While the House of Commons has resumed sitting this week for the first time since December, with both a Speech from the Throne and a budget scheduled to be delivered, Senator Duffy felt that the Conservative government could have done a better job selling its decision to suspend parliament.
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