Northern Manitoba is a huge territory with a dozen or so communities scattered over an area larger than most countries. The distances between these small population centers is enormous, and the challenges of providing legal services are both immense and diverse.
The region that we call Northern Manitoba, traditionally all of the land north of the 55th parallel, or as we like to call it, North of 55, is a diverse land. There are fairly large population centers such as Thompson, Flin Flon and The Pas whose economies are based on mining and forestry. All of these cities are relatively recent additions to the North, and are located in the traditional territories of the First Nations, the first inhabitants of the area.
The First Nation communities of Northern Manitoba vary greatly in size and economic development. Some are accessible by all weather roads, while others are only accessible by plane or by winter road. Many First Nations people speak Cree or Dene as a first language.
There are three judicial centers in the North, one in each of the major cities: Flin Flon, The Pas and Thompson. These judicial centers are where the court house and judges are based, and they serve as the hub for serving the far flung communities within their jurisdiction. Court parties consisting of a judge, court staff, the Crown Attorney and Defence Lawyers regularly travel to the various communities to hold circuit court. Or at least they do in theory. In fact, weather conditions and other events often prevent or delay the court party which means that many of the more isolated communities do not get a court sitting more than a few times a year, and when they do the criminal docket is often overcrowded. Matters in the outlying communities often take a long time to get to trial.
In the larger cities, such as Thompson, the court sittings are more frequent and varied. Whereas most of the outlying communities only have sittings of the criminal court, or sometimes child protection court, centers such as Thompson have access to a much wider range of legal services. For example, in Thompson, there are regular sittings of the Court of Queen's Bench with visiting judges from Winnipeg, as well as Provincial court sittings presided over by local judges. The courts in Thompson handle all kinds of matters, from civil litigation to family law cases and all sorts of criminal charges.
Most lawyers in the North are based in one of the major cities, such as Thompson. Although there are several lawyers who live and practice in the outlying communities, the majority of northern lawyers are based in Thompson, Flin Flon, or The Pas. The lawyers in these centers are a small community and everyone knows each other.
Lawyers who practice in the north, especially the ones who choose to make Northern Manitoba their long term home, tend to thrive on the challenges that living and practicing in the north offers, and to enjoy the enormous benefits of northern practice as well. Some of the challenges include the great distances between communities and the difficulty in meeting with and communicating with clients, access to justice issues such as poverty or lack of education which sometimes makes it harder for clients to interact with their counsel, and the incredibly busy work loads. But these challenges, at least for those of us who love practicing in the north, are outweighed by the sense of accomplishment in overcoming these obstacles in order to provide needed legal services, the beauty of the north and the resilience of its people, and most of all the opportunity to make a real difference. The opportunity to build a successful, busy practice much faster than in the south and to handle complex, serious cases much sooner in your career, is also an incentive.
My experience was fairly typical of many of the lawyers here in Thompson. I moved here shortly after law school with the intention of only staying a few years - the famous Five Year Plan which has lured many other professionals to Thompson -- but like so many others I found myself enchanted by the beauty of the North and too busy and fulfilled by my career to ever think of leaving.