Courts’ vacancies filled with new judges

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This article was published 01/02/2017 (3435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With three federally appointed judges newly sworn in to serve on the bench, Manitoba now has a full complement hearing criminal and family cases at the Court of Queen’s Bench and provincial court levels.

New Court of Queen’s Bench justices Candace Grammond, David Kroft and Lore Mirwaldt were officially sworn in last week, part of a spate of judicial appointments announced by the Liberal government in October.

Mirwaldt, who was called to the bar in Manitoba in 1984 and became a founding partner of the law firm Mirwaldt and Gray two years later, is serving in the family division, while Kroft and Grammond are now presiding over matters in the Court of Queen’s Bench general division.

Grammond is a former partner with Pitblado Law and Kroft spent 28 years as a lawyer with Fillmore Riley LLP before being appointed as a judge.

The recent appointments — part of a total of 24 federal judges appointed across Canada along with promises of judicial-selection reform — mean Manitoba no longer has judicial vacancies within its first two court tiers. In the province’s highest court, the Court of Appeal, there is one vacancy, according to the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada.

The new appointments are good news, said Manitoba Bar Association President Brad Regehr, who expressed hope a full complement of judges will mean Manitoba is better equipped to tackle court delays. But he said filling judicial vacancies is just one step toward improving access to justice, particularly in light of a Supreme Court decision cracking down on criminal trial delays.

The province has already seen one case — a sexual assault allegation — thrown out because of unreasonable delay in provincial court.