B.C. provincial court to resume priority in-person proceedings

The Provincial Court of British Columbia will resume priority in-person proceedings in a number of cities next month, including Kelowna.

In a news release, the court says two courtrooms will be opened in each of six locations starting June 8. They include Surrey, Victoria, Prince George and Kelowna, as well as two locations in Vancouver.

One courtroom in each of 28 additional cities will open for certain in-person appearances as of June 15. The court says in-person proceedings will only be available for priority matters that cannot be accommodated remotely.

For most cases, it says, processes put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic will continue. Urgent matters in family, small claims and criminal courts continued to be heard during the pandemic.

“Open accessible courts are fundamental to our democracy,” the court said in a release Tuesday. “The rule of law depends on it.

“However, the public, litigants, court staff, court participants, counsel, judges and the media need to know that when they come to court they will be safe.”

The decision helps stem a tide of building backlog across Canada that prompted a criminal law firm in Alberta to warn that the extension of measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Alberta’s courthouses will worsen a backlog that existed before the pandemic.

Liberty Law sounded the alarm over excessive justice delays in a recent letter to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and provincial health and justice ministers.

“Our justice system was already overburdened, backlogged and facing significant delays,” the lawyers wrote in the missive dated May 13 and made public recently. “The backlog is now more extreme, with only a few cases trickling through the reduced services barriers.”