COVID-19 threw a wrench into the judicial system, but city courts adapted
In a democracy, justice must be swift to be true.
Our right to be tried in a timely fashion is entrenched in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says “any person charged with an offence has the right … to be tried within a reasonable time.”
And the Supreme Court has made clear any breach of this right won't be tolerated and even those accused of the most heinous crimes may be let free if their rights aren't ensured.
Of course, when the nation's top court set specific timelines for cases to be completed, it said discrete, exceptional circumstances could extend what would normally be a justifiable time period.
But not even the top judges in the country could have foreseen the pandemic, which brought our judicial system to its knees in 2020. COVID-19 presented an unimaginable challenge to the Calgary court system, but through sometimes drastic measures and imaginative innovation, it pulled through.
From creating makeshift courtrooms away from the Calgary Courts Centre to accommodate social-distancing requirements for jurors, to conducting the major bulk of cases remotely through phone, video, or internet link, our justice system soldiered on.
In Calgary, hundreds of names appear on the criminal docket every day. While the novel coronavirus created an exceptional circumstance, it didn't mean individual rights could be suspended indefinitely.
Nowhere was this challenge to adapt to a pandemic greater than in the provincial courts, which handle the vast majority of cases on a daily basis.
“This past year definitely presented some very unique challenges for the provincial court,” Assistant Chief Judge Joanne Durant said in an email. “COVID required us to rethink how to provide and improve access to justice for Albertans.
“Thanks to the collaboration of all of the court stakeholders, the provincial court was able to remain safe and accessible throughout the year.”
Durant said while most cases were moved to remote appearances, adaptations were necessary for in-person cases.
“Our courtrooms now look very different, with spacing and occupancy restrictions, Plexiglas, hand sanitizers and disinfectant wipes throughout.”
Calgary's Chief Crown prosecutor, Sue Kendall, said 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, and her staff is no different.
“Prosecutors have quickly adapted to appearing in court by phone and video and better using technology,” Kendell said in an email.
“We appreciate being able to work collaboratively with the courts and all stakeholders to ensure we are able to continue to serve Albertans whose lives are impacted by the criminal justice process.”
Despite the pandemic tribulations, trials did proceed in 2020.
The most disturbing of those was the second-degree murder trial of Zaineddin Al Aalak, who was charged with strangling his father and then dismembering and decapitating his corpse before dumping the remains at an Okotoks construction site.
Al Aalak admitted the killing and causing an indignity to his father's body, but claimed he was in the throes of psychosis at the time, receiving telepathic messages from God that the man who came to his townhouse in the early morning hours of July 15, 2017, was not his father, Mohamed, but an imposter there to kill him. He told jurors God instructed him to strike his father with a hammer and kill him, which he did, hitting him twice with the tool and repeatedly punching him before manually choking him to death.
But jurors accepted the evidence of a psychiatrist called by the Crown who said Al Aalak was malingering. Dr. Yuri Metelitsa said by the time he assessed Al Aalak in 2019, there was no evidence anyone, from remand inmates and guards to nurses at the forensic psychiatry centre, that the killer was experiencing delusions to which he would have shown signs of reacting.
And perhaps the trial that created the most headlines, both in Calgary and worldwide, was that of city police officer Alexander Dunn, who was ultimately convicted of assault causing bodily harm of a female arrestee.
Video of Dunn tossing Dalia Kafi headfirst to the floor — while she was handcuffed at arrest processing — became an exhibit during his trial and also went viral. He will be sentenced in the new year.