Manitoba provincial court 'not prepared' to adjust in face of pandemic, annual report suggests

The highest-ranking member of Manitoba's provincial court says her organization, like other democratic institutions, was caught flat-footed by the pandemic and officials "naively thought we could wait it out."

"We were not prepared to hold court hearings in any manner different from our traditional format," Provincial Court Chief Judge Margaret I. Wiebe wrote in the court's 19th annual report, published Tuesday. 

"We were not prepared for people to be afraid to come to the courthouse. We were not prepared to manage a crisis of this magnitude. We were not technologically equipped to appropriately conduct hearings remotely."

The 38-page document is the first of the annual reports delivered since COVID-19 swept through in 2020 and threw the standard way of administering justice into disarray.

It breaks down how the court performed on several fronts in 2020 and 2021, with 41 provincial court judges and 14 sitting senior judges spread across Winnipeg, Brandon, The Pas, Dauphin, Portage la Prairie and Thompson.

That performance includes the time it took for cases of different severity levels to reach disposition and how specialized sections such as the drug treatment and mental health courts fared. The report includes a strategic plan that lists goals to improve access to the justice system and to continue focusing on Indigenous issues.

Pandemic-driven changes began with the cancellations of all circuit court and out-of-custody trials starting March 16, 2020, a few days after the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Manitoba.

Wiebe said all three levels of court in Manitoba tried to "seize the opportunity" to adapt, while balancing health, safety and access to justice considerations.

They did that work through a task force that connected with provincial ministers, managers, health officials, police, defence, corrections, court administrators, Crown attorneys and defence lawyers, the report said.

The provincial court flank of the task force met daily for months to brainstorm ways to successfully continue administering justice.

Plexiglass barriers, mask mandates and coronavirus screening measures were implemented in courts.

Courts also pivoted to rely more on phones in lieu of in-person court dates, dockets and case management meetings, including for matters involving people in custody in remote areas to reduce the typical amount of travel.

A virtual assignment court system was established; in-person child protection dockets resumed in May 2020; and by June of that year all matters in the six provincial court centres resumed, as did docket dispositions and trials in Beausejour, Morden, Selkirk, Flin Flon and other smaller communities. 

Taking things virtual was one of several shifts introduced into a courts system that had up until that point not adopted certain technological advances.

"So we embraced the opportunity to expand its use," Wiebe writes. "As a result, we re-shaped the way many judicial services were delivered. This was no easy task."

Wiebe said the introduction of new technological process required changes to in-house policies to ensure "fairness and dignity of the hearing process."

It also became clear that in some cases — select criminal hearings, in particular — the virtual, remote approach wasn't a good fit, she said.

By March 2021, all multi-day out-of-custody trials and preliminary inquiries in Winnipeg and Thompson were heard again in courts.

Wiebe says there remains a need for more video-link technology capacity in remote communities, especially in the north, so people arrested in their communities don't have to head to the nearest judicial centre for bail application and hearing matters.

"The associated human and financial cost is significant," Wiebe writes, adding inadequate bandwidth for internet connections is a barrier.

Amid the recurring closures and re-openings of businesses, schools, courts and the challenges all of that posed, Wiebe said provincial court staff also learned a valuable lesson: they and the system itself was more nimble than some might've thought.

But the pandemic effect endures.

"Many hearings were cancelled and we are now assessing how best to tackle what will be a significant backlog," she wrote.

"This will require both discipline and additional resources. With an eye to the future, we will also be assessing lessons learned and how the court might capitalize on these going forward."