A Supreme Court Justice allowed media to attend what was originally a closed hearing to determine the conditions for Barbara Munves’ possible return home.
Justice Jacqueline Matheson did not allow members of the public to attend the hearing, with about a dozen supporters of husband Jim Munves waiting outside the courtroom.
Alanna Taylor, who was representing the Department of Health and Wellness, requested media also be excluded from the hearing.
While Matheson said she understood concerns that Barbara Munves, who suffers from dementia, is a vulnerable adult “this matter has already been canvassed by the media and Mr. Munves has participated in those stories.”
With public interest in the case, Matheson said she felt it was important members of the public are made aware of all the facts of law in the case opposed to conjecture and opinion.
She said it was important to educate the public on P.E.I.’s Adult Protection Act.
“I decided it was in the interest of everyone to get the full story presented,” she said.
Related: Jim Munves reaches agreement with P.E.I. government to have wife return home
Taylor also commented on previous media stories about the Munves.
Taylor said coverage has been “certainly unfair” to adult protection worker Crystal MacEachern and home care co-ordinator Shelley Heron, as well as other adult protection workers. Neither MacEachern nor Heron were mentioned by name in The Guardian’s coverage.
“Some of the things that have been said about adult protection… that ‘Barb is a prisoner’ and things like that are quite unfair,” said Taylor. “I would suggest the work they’ve done on this file, and frankly every file, is exemplary.”
She also challenged Munves’ previous comments to media, where he stated he had already acted on the province’s recommendations to bring his wife home from Atlantic Baptist Home with no success.
“We never moved the bar…. also I would like to note that in our letter on March 23, in that letter we did state that if Jim had a plan he could take Barbara out of Atlantic Baptist,” said Taylor, “which is certainly different from what he said to the media two days after our letter came out that (Barbara) was a prisoner.”
Taylor was appearing to reference a story on the couple published by The Guardian on March 24.
The Guardian interviewed Jim for that story on March 17.
The Guardian also reached out to the Department of Health and Wellness for comment on March 21, two days before the March 23 letter.
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