HALIFAX—As Nova Scotia Crown attorneys picketed the legislature for a second day, the province said they were causing a “breakdown” of the criminal justice system, and was trying to bring an end to the strike on two fronts.

Justice Minister Mark Furey said he was “troubled” to hear of cases being thrown out because of the strike, but blamed the Crown attorneys. He said he has no personal responsibility.

“This is about money in their pocket,” Furey told reporters Thursday at Province House. “(Crown prosecutors) are putting their personal financial needs and desires ahead of the well-being of victims and survivors and that’s problematic.”

The Liberal government of Stephen McNeil could force the striking Crowns back to work as soon as Friday, with an emergency injunction on its way to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and Bill 203 making its way through the House of Assembly.

McNeil has said repeatedly he believes the strike is illegal, and government lawyers made the same claim in a letter submitted to the high court.

“The attorney general believes this is an emergency because the Crowns are not permitted to engage in strikes, and their doing so is having a harrowing effect on the criminal justice system in this province,” provincial lawyers wrote.

The letter says the Crowns’ absence was causing cases to be “dismissed, adjourned, or otherwise not attended to, leading to a breakdown in the criminal justice system generally.”

The president of the Nova Scotia Crown Attorneys’ Association, Perry Borden, has also acknowledged that the consequences of the strike are “quite serious,” but he put the blame on the government.

“One charge dropped is one charge too many. It’s a serious day in Nova Scotia when charges are being dropped because Crowns are not in courts and we’re on the streets or in the legislature when we want to be in court,” Borden told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

But, Borden added, “We are not to blame for what’s happening in the courts, the government is to blame as to why we are not in court. When we didn’t accept their rules, we didn’t play by their terms, they basically cut it off at the knees.

“If they want this stopped, right here today, all they have to do is pull Bill 203 from the floor and we can get back to business as usual. Give us back our rights.”

According to Borden, there were at least half a dozen cases dropped on Wednesday, including cases of domestic violence, impaired driving, assault and fraud.

Bill 203, introduced at the legislature last week, would take away the Crowns’ right to arbitration. It would also proffer them the right to strike, but the director of the Public Prosecution Service, Martin Herschorn, told a legislature committee last week the right to strike was “meaningless” because the bill would make their work an essential service.

The Crown attorneys are contesting the court injunction, which is scheduled to be seen by a judge Friday morning.

Court filings from the Crown attorneys argue that their strike is warranted because “Bill 203 denies them of an effective dispute settlement mechanism to resolve bargaining differences which the (Charter of Rights and Freedoms) requires.”

“The Province’s arbitrary, unfair and unconsitutional conduct should not be rewarded by a court of equity in these circumstances,” the document says.

Before the bill was introduced, the Crown attorneys were negotiating a new contract with the province and had reached an impasse. They were seeking a 17 per cent wage increase and the province was offering seven per cent.

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The premier has said the province can’t afford the Crowns’ proposal because of the wage pattern it would set for other public servants.

Bill 203 was debated at the House for nearly five hours Thursday and was carried, by the Liberal government’s majority with no support from opposition members, to third reading. It could pass into law as soon as Friday.

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