Announcing the appointments, B.C. Attorney-General Shirley Bond congratulated the new judges. “I wish them all the best as they start the next chapter in their distinguished legal careers.”
Nine new judges have been appointed to the B.C. Provincial Court, filling less than half of the vacancies on the bench.
The appointments follow unprecedented public remarks from senior judges that the court system lacks adequate funding and that an increasing number of criminal cases are on the verge of being stayed because of lengthy delays.
Announcing the appointments, B.C. Attorney-General Shirley Bond congratulated the new judges. "I wish them all the best as they start the next chapter in their distinguished legal careers," she said in a news release. Ms. Bond's office did not respond to a request for an interview.
Premier Christy Clark has called a news conference for Wednesday to unveil measures that she says will modernize the court system "in a manner that preserves judicial independence while improving processes and transparency." Her office declined on Tuesday to elaborate.
Chief Judge Thomas Crabtree of the B.C. Provincial Court welcomed the new judges. "Their appointment is a very helpful first step towards restoring the required complement of provincial court judges," he said in an e-mailed response to a request for an interview.
Government cutbacks over the past decade have reduced the number of prosecutors, court clerks, registry staff and sheriffs as well as judges. B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Bauman has said that people accused of crimes are going free because their right to a fair trial in a reasonable time has been infringed. The B.C. Court of Appeal recently upheld the dismissal of charges against two people accused of cocaine trafficking because it had taken five years, 2 1/2 months for their case to come to trial.
NDP critic Leonard Krog said the nine appointments "are not even half way to [resolving]the judge crisis." Thirteen more appointments are required to bring the numbers back to the level of 2005. In addition, about a half-dozen more judges are needed to respond to demands on the courts from population growth and other issues, Mr. Krog said.
The outcry for adequate funding for the court system has been unprecedented, Mr. Krog said. "You would be hard pressed to find a government in this country or in the country's history that faced such open public criticism by judges," he said, adding that the B.C. government was mismanaging one of its fundamental responsibilities.
Samiran Lakshman, president for the B.C. Crown Counsel Association, said the appointments mean "we are drowning a little less, but we are still looking at massive backlog of cases." He said he will be watching whether Ms. Clark continues to reverse cutbacks in the justice system. "Otherwise, we will not have prosecutors to fill these courtrooms that will be opened [by the appointments of more judges]" he said.
Information posted on the provincial court website shows that the court had the equivalent of 121.35 full-time judges as of Jan. 31. Seven years ago, when the court first raised concerns about government cutbacks, it had the equivalent of 143.65 judges.
The list of new provincial court judges includes Crown counsels Victor Galbraith, Melissa Gillespie and Gregory Koturbash; family-law lawyers Patricia Bond and Gregory Brown; Ted Gouge, who has been counsel with the legal services branch of the Attorney-General's Ministry; Randall Callan, a Canadian Forces lawyer in the Judge Advocate-General's Office; Patricia Janzen, who has extensive experience with mediation; and Terence Wright, a long-time Terrace, B.C., lawyer.
With a report from Sunny Dhillon