Our court system is becoming so overburdened and clogged with unresolved cases that it brings to mind the old adage, "justice delayed is justice denied."
The delay in the sentencing of Fred Church last week was a vivid demonstration of the situation. This is a serious case: Church has pleaded guilty to three sex crimes involving 13- and 14-year-old children. Church's sentencing hearing was scheduled to last about an hour on the morning of Oct. 6, and several parents and friends of the victims travelled to Vancouver that day to see justice done.
Instead, they got a first-hand view of the problems with B.C.'s court system as the case was moved from one courtroom to another, taken off the list of one judge and handed to a different judge. The hearing began after a delay of an hour and a half, only to be halted after a half-hour of submissions because the second judge had to leave court for the afternoon.
Defense and Crown lawyers said this was not terribly unusual for a Supreme Court case: "It's just the way it goes." But the postponement was very distressing for the victims' families, who had taken time off work, paid for the expense of a trip to Vancouver and gone through the emotional upheaval of hearing the details of the crimes once again.
It was undoubtedly also a hardship for Church, who must now wait another month to learn what his sentence will be.
The situation is just as bad in Sechelt provincial court, where trials are routinely scheduled for months or a year in the future. When the trial date arrives, it often happens that the lawyers run out of time and the case must be continued - on a date further months down the road.
It is not unusual for witnesses to be subpoenaed and spend an entire day sitting in the waiting room of the Sechelt court, only to learn at the end of the day the case was delayed and they must come back another day.
The situation is frustrating for everyone involved with the court system. In a recent case, Judge Dan Moon kept the court open until 6 p.m., an hour and a half past its usual closing time, in order to complete a trial that had already been put over once.
Judges and court workers are doing the best they can to provide justice despite the shortage of court time. But the justice system needs more resources, or justice delayed may well prove to be justice denied.