Nunavut court suspends all regular activities until May 31

After first deciding to continue normal activities at the Iqaluit courthouse while shutting down elsewhere, the Nunavut Court of Justice will now suspend regular operations everywhere in the territory until at least May 31, the Nunavut chief justice, Neil Sharkey, has announced in a new directive.

That directive, released on Tuesday, March 17, is effective as of 5 p.m., March 16, and is aimed at thwarting the potential spread of COVID-19.

As of March 17, no confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Nunavut. But 566 were confirmed across Canada and eight people had died of the disease.

“The decision to suspend operations was made to protect the health and safety of all community members and court users by aiding efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19,” Sharkey said.

This means all trials are adjourned and all in-person appearances are suspended everywhere in the territory, immediately.

This latest decision follows earlier Nunavut court directives issued late last week that announced the suspension of travelling court circuits outside Iqaluit, as well as suspension of all jury trials.

At that time, it appeared as if the court would continue normal operations in Iqaluit. But now, Iqaluit operations have been suspended also.

So to ensure the court keeps jurisdiction over all criminal matters, Sharkey said he has issued a separate emergency closure order for each Nunavut community.

Each closure order states when those matters must be brought back to court after the suspension is lifted.

Court still operates for urgent matters

At the same time, urgent matters will continue to be dealt with, but primarily through teleconferencing or electronic filing of documents.

“The suspension of regular operations is not to be confused with stoppage of court operations. The NCJ is still operational to ensure the continued administration of Justice in Nunavut,” Sharkey said in his directive.

Those urgent matters include the following:

• Judicial pre-trial conferences: these will be done by telephone with electronic filing of relevant documents.

• Bail, bail reviews and detention reviews: these will be done by telephone or videoconference, sometimes without the presence of the accused person.

• Urgent guilty pleas and sentencings: these will be done remotely.

In Iqaluit, all cases will be returned to court as of June 1.

Outside Iqaluit, cases will be returned on the first available circuit court date after June 1.

Nunavut follows Ontario’s example

In doing this, Sharkey said he’s following the example of Ontario.

To underscore the importance of the court’s work, Sharkey quoted from a statement released on March 15 by the chief justice of the Ontario Superior Court, Geoffrey Morawetz.

“The court plays a fundamental role in our constitutional democracy. Access to justice for the most urgent matters is available,” Morawetz said.

The work of the Nunavut court touches the lives of many thousands of people in the territory each year, including accused persons, victims of crime and witnesses.

The NCJs latest annual report, which covers 2017, says 5,911 criminal charges were laid in Nunavut that year.

That year the court also handled scores of family law and child welfare cases, as well as numerous applications under the Family Violence Intervention Act.

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