Pubdate: Wed, 21 Aug 2002
Source: Kitchener-Waterloo Record (CN ON)
Copyright: 2002 Kitchener-Waterloo Record
Contact:  http://www.therecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/225
Author: Frances Barrick

HIRING DRUG PROSECUTORS FOR KITCHENER A PRIORITY

KITCHENER -- A hiring freeze may hamper efforts to open a satellite office 
in Kitchener staffed by three full-time federal drug prosecutors to handle 
the burgeoning marijuana home-grow cases and other drug charges.

The opening of the office "is not an absolute as a result of a hiring 
freeze" placed on the federal Department of Justice, Stephane Marinier, a 
federal Justice Department prosecutor, said yesterday.

Originally, the office was slated to open next month, but Marinier said the 
recently imposed hiring freeze has created a hurdle that must be overcome.

But Marinier and his boss, Croft Michaelson, remain confident that senior 
federal bureaucrats will allow an exemption to the hiring freeze to meet 
the need for a Kitchener-based office.

"We do consider this an urgent priority," said Michaelson, who oversees 
federal prosecution offices across Canada.

This urgent need was sparked by the recent resignations of Gerry Taylor and 
Pat Flynn -- two local lawyers who handled drug prosecutions on behalf of 
the federal government.

For the past several months, three staff lawyers from the Toronto office of 
the Justice Department have been filling in for Flynn and Taylor, but 
Marinier, who is one of the three lawyers doing double duty in Toronto and 
Kitchener, said that is no longer practical.

"I have a full-time job other than co-ordinating and attending court in 
Kitchener," Marinier said.

"From our perspective, there are no other options and I hope those 
reviewing the situation would see it like that as well," he said.

The three lawyers slated to work in the Kitchener office would come from 
the Toronto office, and Marinier said additional staff would be needed to 
fill the void created by their departure.

"The reality is our office can't absorb the work in Kitchener without an 
increase in our own compliment," he said.

Adds Michaelson: "Certainly the workload in Kitchener-Waterloo is justified 
to warrant a satellite office."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart