The Supreme Court of British Columbia says staffing and space issues may see some criminal trials rescheduled or moved — or suspects released from custody — if they’re being held too far from the courthouse where they’re on trial.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes says in a notice on the court’s website that local police detachments used to hold suspects during trials if daily transport to and from a correctional centre was “not manageable on a twice-daily basis.”
“For trials of several weeks or more, the accused person was often returned to the correctional centre each weekend,” Holmes said.
It says the problem has been dealt with by the court’s sheriffs, often involving an accused being brought from a pretrial facility to the courthouse on a chartered airplane each day of their trial.
“This changed when the RCMP and other local police forces found themselves unable to continue providing staff and space to keep custody of accused persons, and discontinued thearrangement.”
MLA Steve Kooner, the current opposition critic for the Attorney General, says this is another example of “gross incompetence and mismanagement” by the Attorney General’s office and the NDP government.
“We have a huge issue right now in regards to what was said in this notice in terms of there not being proper staffing and facilities to hold [the accused in custody],” Kooner told 1130 NewsRadio.
“And the notice also said that if this issue prolongs or if there’s not a solution to this issue, some accused might be released, and they might be released into the public. And that is really concerning, because we’re in the middle of a major public safety crisis in this province.”
Kooner says it isn’t new for the province to be dealing with issues around staffing of B.C. sheriffs.
“We’ve heard issues about trials being adjourned before, and now we hear about this notice,” he said.
“This is just an ongoing trend from this provincial government of mishandling our justice system in this product.”
The notice says the provincial government and police services have been working on the problem, but it’s unclear when a “long-term solution” will be found and implemented.
Holmes says affected trials may have to be moved or rescheduled, or an accused released from custody, if no arrangements can be made for trials to occur as scheduled.
The notice says the issue impacts trials, voir dires, pre-trial applications, and sentencing proceedings in communities including Cranbrook, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Nelson, Powell River, Prince Rupert, Revelstoke, Rossland, Smithers, Terrace, and Williams Lake.