Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 24/01) - After years of being forced to hold hearings at the Yellowknife RCMP detachment, justice workers are thankful for a new room at the Yellowknife courthouse.

The justice of the peace hearing room underwent six months of preliminary design and construction and is now being used full-time for show cause hearings on the first floor of the courthouse.

"It's a proper room with secure access to the cells," said defence lawyer James Brydon.

He added that facilities at the RCMP were often noisy, small and also hard to come by.

The hearings are held to determine if suspects could be released on bail until their trial or sentencing.

"If you got lucky it was just a room," Brydon explained. "The Department of Justice occasionally had to rent a room at the Explorer Hotel. Maybe with the (new) room that will be done away with."

The courthouse now has four rooms, even though the new one is supposed to be used only for show cause hearings. There are two on the second floor and another on the third without access to cells.

That means if someone is required to appear who is in custody a third-floor room is unavailable without parading alleged offenders through public hallways.

At this point there is still only one room that can accommodate a jury.

"The question that will arise sooner or later is what if we have two jury trials at the same time?," Brydon added.

Director of court services Bruce McKay said court facilities are under review.

Whether more renovations are done on the current courthouse or a new one is built is in the hands of the government of the Northwest Territories.

"There was an immediate need and we set out to meet it," he said about the new hearing room.

"There is a larger issue about what to do about our aging courthouse," he said. "That issue is a live one because it needs to be resolved."

Brydon said that parking, the courthouse's sterile atmosphere and the fact that the building is shared by the GNWT Department of Justice would all be remedied with a new courthouse.