A Vancouver provincial court judge May 11 expressed frustration in open court about a lack of judges due to miscommunication about court sitting days scheduled around a judges’ conference this week.
Judge Jodie Werier said she found herself handling bail proceedings for Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond as a result of judges not being available.
As such, she refused to hear longer appearances so she could deal with bail appearances.
“Nobody knew it wasn’t a regular sitting day,” Werier said. “It’s an inconvenience for a lot of people.”
The Office of the Chief Judge, however, said the conference is on the court’s calendar.
Werier said the conference generally entails two days at the end of a week with the Wednesday usually being a travel day.
That travel day was needed because pre-COVID, Werier said, judges would have to get to places such as Kelowna or Victoria for the conference.
This year, however, it’s a hybrid meeting — as so many conferences have become in the pandemic era.
“The judges’ conference has not started yet,” said Werier, who usually sits in Downtown Community Court, a block over from Vancouver provincial court.
But, she said, there had been a miscommunication about how the conference was going to be dealt with. This year, the conference did not entail a travel day with the conference being a hybrid, she said.
What the situation has meant is that some courts are operating on a so-called hub basis, where one court handles regional issues.
Lawyer Susan Daniells told Werier she was “baffled” to have received a message from the Office of the Chief Judge saying the courts were on a hub basis.
Responding to a Glacier Media request, the Office of the Chief Judge said in a statement, the Judges’ Education Conference is listed on the court’s provincial calendar web page as running May 12-14.
“During the conference, the court remains open and continues to hear urgent matters, such as bail hearings, during regular court-sitting hours in hub courtrooms in each of the court’s regions.”
And, the judge’s office said, outside regular court-sitting hours, urgent matters are heard as usual — for example, bail hearings are conducted via the Justice Centre.
The statement said the hub courtrooms began operating on May 11 in addition to regularly scheduled courtrooms with new in-custody matters scheduled into the hub courtrooms.
“For the remainder of the conference, the court will hear urgent matters during regular court-sitting hours in hub courtrooms, and will hear urgent matters outside regular court-sitting hours in the usual manner,” the statement said.
Regular court operations will resume May 16.
