Alex Reid

Bruce Owen, of the Winnipeg Free Press, wrote a great article on the country’s only “Community Prosecutor”, Susan Helenchilde.

The role of the community prosecutor was recently created by the Manitoba government (Kudos to the Provincial NDP) and it seems, her role is to be the “go to person” within Manitoba Justice to co-ordinate prevention strategies within the tri-levels of government.

(Susan) Helenchilde is Canada’s sole community prosecutor. In the job for about six months, her turf is the downtown and the West End. She spends more time there than in the courtroom, although she’s perfectly at home standing in front of a judge.

Under a unique project set up by Manitoba Justice last year, Helenchilde’s job is to get out from behind the desk and work with residents, business owners and community groups, not only to root out crime, but to prosecute offenders as well.

For instance, she says her program only deals with adult chronic offenders, people like Tew who are nuisance offenders, but who cause significant problems.

“They are interfering with people’s quality of life on a regular basis,” she says.

And a guy like Tew fit the bill. With help from folks in the West End, Helenchilde got the 44-year-old charged and then took him to court where on April 25, she got provincial court Justice Ken Champagne to send him to Stony Mountain Institution for two years.

For shoplifting.

“I’m not saying every shoplifter deserves to go to the penitentiary, but this is an offender who really needs to be supervised,” Helenchilde says.

Helenchilde credits Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh for creating the community prosecutor position. Common in the United States but virtually unheard of in Canada, the best way to describe it is by comparing it to community-based policing — except by a Crown attorney instead of a cop.

“Manitoba is a place where you can try these innovative projects,” says Helenchilde, whose background is in drug prosecutions and domestic violence in Vancouver.

“When I had the opportunity to come here, I grabbed it.” In her role as community prosecutor, Helenchilde says she’s able to build her case not so much from the perspective of the Criminal Code, but the business owners victimized by Tew.

Rather than a file landing on her desk to prosecute, Helenchilde involves herself more in the actual investigation stages, helping to build the case almost from its beginnings.

“We were able to speak directly to a person in the Justice Department who listened to our concerns,” Stan Halbesma, owner of Harry’s Foods on Portage Avenue, says. “Through Susan, the courts truly understood how devastating shoplifting can be.”

For Halbesma, Tew’s conviction on six counts of theft is a small step toward making the neighbourhood safer for Halbesma’s customers and employees.

“I don’t know how much Leonard Tew being out of the picture helps me, but I know how much Susan Helenchilde being in the picture helps me,” he says.

Helenchilde says her job also includes meeting people. First, she meets with people in the area; its boundaries are the Red River to the east, the Assiniboine River to the south, Maryland Street to the west and Pacific Avenue to the north.

At a glance:
* Susan Helenchilde is Canada’s first community prosecutor.

* She brings together Winnipeg police and local stakeholders to target street crime and other locally identified priorities for both aggressive prosecution and co-ordinated prevention strategies.

* The prosecutor works in downtown Winnipeg and the city’s West End.

* Her focus is on chronic adult offenders whose repeat crimes (theft, vandalism, prostitution or public intoxication) pose a public safety risk.

* At any give time, she handles between 30 and 60 files.

* Helenchilde says she expects the community prosecutor program will be expanded to other parts of the city in the coming years.