Gaps in Access to Justice in Rural Area of New Brunswick: A Case Study of the Courthouse Closure in the Acadian Peninsula

Abstract

New Brunswick is among one of the provinces with the highest proportion of inhabitants who live in rural areas. However, within the same province, the rural environment is not homogeneous in several aspects including cultural, linguistic, demographic, etc. Thus, the legal needs in a rural environment are different from those of an urban environment. Although access to justice is a fundamental right (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, section 7th), rural residents face challenges. Several strategies or initiatives have been put in place (such as remote justice or WellCoMs Mobile Van), but the main question is whether these strategies are effective and ensure adequate access to justice for rural residents. In the last twenty years the provincial government closed a number of courthouses across rural New Brunswick. However, the closure of the Caraquet courthouse in the Acadian Peninsula in 2022 raised several objections, particularly regarding the threatened access to justice and the fact that the rights of the Francophone community in the region had not been considered. In 2024, an application for judicial review of the government’s decision was filed. A decision of the New Brunswick Court of King’s Bench upheld the annulment of this closure. This decision was welcomed by rural communities. However, it should be noted that the judgement emphasizes the political and executive nature of the decision. In addition to the question of justiciability, the Court of King’s Bench criticized the closure of the courthouse in the Acadian Peninsula, for the threatened linguistic right (here the right to French). In this paper, we approach an analysis of the content of the two legal decisions rendered by the Court of King’s Bench of Bathurst while awaiting a decision from the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick in light of fundamental rights including access to justice in rural areas.

Keywords: access to justice, rural crimes, courthouse closure, linguistic rights, case study

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