Curling rink is courtroom, too
RURAL SYSTEM GIVES PEOPLE ACCESS TO LEGAL PROCEEDINGS CLOSER TO THEIR COMMUNITIES
BLAINE LAKE, SASK. • You could say the curling rink in Blaine Lake, Sask., has a split personality.
On evenings and weekends, the upstairs lounge hosts league nights, bonspiels, fundraisers and various community events. But once a month, it transforms into a courtroom.
On Dec. 1, a paper sign on the front doors exclaimed “Blaine Lake Provincial Court is held upstairs!!” At 9:20 a.m ., three rows of chairs were lined up, facing away from the curling sheets. The space is set up like a courtroom, with the Crown and defence tables situated on either side of the room and the judge at the front.
But it’s hard not to notice the shuffleboard and foosball tables tucked away in a back corner. An adjacent wall features a giant mural of a figure skater on an ice pond. And in the middle, a judge prepares for court in a concession booth.
That morning, a man lingered around one of the curtained entrances. Court had not begun, but he tried to ask the judge a question.
“Please don’t approach the judge,” the court clerk politely told him.
The chairs soon began to fill up as court staff prepared to deal with 64 matters — a large docket, the j udge noted l ater. Most people were out of custody, but one man arrived in handcuffs with a police officer. There’s no back door or parking garage to slip through unnoticed, so he goes in the front door.
This i sn’ t your typical courtroom. Later in the day, when a man in the back row heard his name called, he clambered over two rows of chairs to get to the front. That’s one way to do it, Judge Shannon Metivier remarked.
Another man tapped a police officer in the front row on the shoulder.
“Can I go next?” he whispered. “I have a funeral to go to.”
This circuit court is informal, but Metivier says there’s still a level of decorum and respect. While the formalities of a traditional courtroom remain in place, t he environment makes things unconventional.
“You’re in close proximity, so there’s probably more social interaction between the parties during the court proceedings,” she says.
That can lead to more efficiencies, Metivier points out. She believes there are fewer adjournments when people know it will be a month before they can return to court.
People are also more likely to attend when they don’t have to travel long distances, says Judge James Plemel, Chief Judge of the Provincial Court of Saskatchewan.
Plemel and Metivier agree the biggest benefit of the rural system is that it gives people access to court proceedings closer to their communities, while reducing the load on the 13 permanent court locations in the province.
Plemel admits some facilities are not ideal; there can be bad acoustics and issues with cleanliness.
“Sometimes these halls are used for social gatherings and you might very well have a social gathering one evening and court the next day,” he says.
While most circuit court sittings are held in town halls, band offices or community centres, there are other unique venues similar to Blaine Lake.
Court in Turnor Lake and Cut Knife also takes place in rinks; in Beauval, a church doubles as a courtroom.
Rather than use an existing facility, Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation built its own community justice building. It’s one of the seven circuit point locations Metivier travels to from Saskatoon — part of a new system that puts one Saskatoon provincial court judge on the rural circuit for an entire year. She’s on the road about four days a week.
Having the same judge return to a community creates a continuity with the case files that you don’t necessarily get in the larger centres, Metivier says.
There’s also a sense of familiarity. Sometimes, it leads to conversations outside the courtroom.
“It can be nice to have that contact with the public. You feel, I guess, a little bit a part of the community,” Metivier says, adding there have been no security issues so far.
One of the most striking differences she’s noticed between a city courtroom and a rural courtroom is the variety. Saskatoon has specific docket courts for out of custody, in custody and trial matters.
“Here, we get a little bit of everything,” she says.
The Blaine Lake docket listed a range of charges, from breaches of court orders to sexual assault, impaired driving and Traffic Safety Act violations. The cases included a man who attacked his neighbour with a baseball bat and a man who threatened his cousin with a knife because she wouldn’t give him a ride.
All in all, it was a smooth day, Crown prosecutor Dorinda Stahl said after court adjourned around 1 p. m. She said she doesn’t mind working out of the lounge of a curling rink, noting the acoustics are good and there are two private rooms where lawyers can meet.
“I enjoy getting sort of a feel of rural Saskatchewan. You can see how communities are different at the circuit points I prosecute at, and how the communities are the same.”
Metivier says she has also enjoyed the experience — and doesn’t mind getting ready under a menu board that advertises eggs for sale.