Delays on psychiatric assessments anger judge

The province of New Brunswick is breaking the law by failing to carry out court-ordered psychiatric assessments in a timely manner, a judge in Saint John said.

Provincial court Judge William McCarroll was angered to learn thattwo assessments he had ordered haveyet to becarried out.

In court on Tuesday, McCarroll said it was intolerable for a judge to order a psychiatric assessment and to then have nothing happen.When legitimate orders of the court are ignored or disobeyed, the rule of law no longer exists, he said.

McCarroll went so far as tosuggest someone high up in government had decided his orders couldn't or shouldn't be obeyed.

McCarroll said he wanted names by Thursday, when he's scheduled a hearing to find out who's responsible for ignoring his orders.

Lawyer John King, who represents a client who was ordered to Campbellton for a psychiatric assessment last Friday, was surprised to hear the man was still in jail this morning at the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre.

"It's unprecedented in my 35 years in these courts that a judge's order has not been complied with by the people who are supposed to comply," King said.

All court ordered psychiatric assessments in new Brunswick are done at the Restigouche Centre in Campbellton. Thirteen beds are set aside, but for security reasons only 10 are used at a time.

Last week, six people were on a waiting list for those beds, even before McCarroll ordered two more be sent.

Justice Minister T.J. Burke said he'd personally look into what happened with McCarroll's court order.

Last week Health Minister Mike Murphy said the province would add seven beds to Restigouche by 2008.

"We are well on our way to solving this," Murphy said.

McCarroll has ordered King's client and a second man back to Restigouche, and said they'd both better be admitted by Thursday.