Can't do anything about court orders: justice minister

Newfoundland and Labrador's justice minister says his hands are tied in trying toimproverestraining orders brought against violent men who continue to beat their partners.

Jerome Kennedy met Wednesday with women's groups, whose frustrations with court orders roseto the surface again following a New Year's Day assault in Sheshatshiu, where a badly beaten woman was found outdoors beside a snow bank.

Kennedy said that rules of bail and restraining orders fall under federal jurisdiction.

"I cannot direct the court to take any steps because of the most basic principle of judicial independence," said Kennedy, who is also the province's attorney general.

"However, what can occur is that there can be discussions with our two police forces in terms of a response times and how to deal with breaches of court orders."

The woman, 19, is recovering fromher third assault in less than four months.

Her boyfriend, Neil Andrew, 20, is being held in custody in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. He had been ordered by the court not to have contact with his girlfriend.

He was charged with aggravated assault after the Jan. 1 incident. However, he had also been charged with assault after his girlfriend was beaten twice in September. The second assault, RCMP said, happened eight days after Andrew was given a court order to stay away from the woman.

"The whole community is in shock," said Mary Pia, a Sheshatshiu woman who attended the meeting with Kennedy on Wednesday.

"I honestly feel that the system should crack down the first time it [happens]. Why take a chance that it happened a second time?"

The effectiveness of restraining orders, or the lack of them, has been a chronic issue for women's groups. Leslie MacLeod, president of the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women and who participated in Wednesday's meeting, said the orders often are useless in protecting women who ask for them.

Meanwhile, Kennedy will be travelling to Labrador next week to meet with leaders of the Innu Nation and Nunatsiavut, the Inuit self-government in Labrador.