Circuit courts return to First Nations communities

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This article was published 17/08/2020 (2216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Court cases adjourned during COVID-19-mandated closures are slowly opening up again, as circuit courts return to First Nations communities.

Circuit courts — where a court travels to a remote or small centre — in northern Manitoba were shuttered in mid-March amid novel coronavirus restrictions. This meant proceedings where the accused was not in custody were adjourned until a time deemed safe for the court to resume. Meanwhile, proceedings for those in custody, including bail hearings, sentencing, preliminary hearings and trials, continued.

Counsel was able to call in for some hearings and case management, only people in-custody were being transported for court, and court would sit on weekends to deal with matters, on occasion.

“It’s important — you’ve got somebody sitting in jail waiting to be sentenced, and they may be done (with their sentence) and you want that to happen as soon as possible,” provincial court Chief Judge Margaret Wiebe said Monday.

Even in-custody proceedings proved to be challenging — some trials required witnesses that were in First Nations communities under locally enforced lockdown — and those cases were adjourned until further notice.

The six major court centres around the province remained open through the closures (Brandon, Dauphin, Portage la Prairie, The Pas, Thompson and Winnipeg).

“We hear thousands of cases a year, so when we’re closed in these (smaller) locations, that backlog is just growing, so we have to find a way to get back into our court locations,” Wiebe said.

The first reopened circuit court in a northern region is at St. Theresa Point First Nation, which requires the court to fly to the community some 470 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Wiebe said the first court sitting last week went “really well.”

“All three levels of court took very proactive and preventative measures so that we could protect all people who use the court and reduce the spread of COVID, but at the same time, we had to make sure our court operations were running,” she said.

Cleaning and physical-distancing protocols are in place for all reopened court locations. The general public is not allowed to attend.

The reopening process is a communal effort that is still underway, Wiebe said, and included reaching out to First Nations leadership directly.

“I wanted to make sure I touched base with all of the chiefs because a lot of them had closed their communities down, and when we went in, it was imperative we did it in a way that was safe and secure,” she said.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas worked in collaboration with other chiefs and the province on the reopening process.

“Our desire was just to make sure if there were plans being made by anyone, they would involve the communities and the leadership,” he said Monday.

Dumas commended the northern communities and provincial court for working together, adding for circuit courts to continue to reopen and remain safe there will have to be some structural shifts.

“Overall, as we move forward, things will have to change. The circuit court’s going to have to make some amendments on how they convene their courts,” he said.

Many communities do not have a formal courthouse, Dumas said. “There’s no protective glass, there’s no segregation rooms. So I think the operations of it are going to have to change quite dramatically.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: malakabas_