Labrador men freed without bail hearing

A Happy Valley-Goose Bay judge has released eight men on bail without a hearing after they were held for nearly a weekwithout seeing a judge.

The defence argued the delay was too long and the men should be freed. Neither the Crown nor the defence had requested the delay and Judge William English ruled the men should be let go.

The men willremain free until the next court appearances on their charges, which include assault, uttering threats and forcible confinement. One man is charged with five counts of assault with a weapon.

The release worries Janet O'Donnell of the Mokmai Status of Women.

"You know, it's really alarming to me that we have so many people who are committing violent crimes and are basically just wandering around our community and the courts are allowing that to happen," she said.

Four years ago, the Mokami women's group put out a study addressing backlogs in the court system. O'Donnell said there are still problems with the justice system.

"We don't have enough people working in the courts, we don't have enough RCMP officers to deal with the amount of crime we're seeing in our communities and as our community gets bigger, we're going to see the crime rate and violence grow along with that," she said.