New Queen’s Bench Notice Family Division

May Administrative Lists, Triage/Prerequisites, Child Protection Intake and Newly Scheduled Motions and Case Conferences (April 28, 2020)

“The purpose and intent of this Notice is to provide important information to litigants and counsel in respect of the previously-announced second limitation of Court services covering the period from April 18 to May 22, 2020.”

This notice assigns matters which were cancelled from April 20 to May 22, 2020, and provides dates for Triage/Prerequisites, Child Protection Intake, and Motions and Case Conferences.

Click here to see the notice.

New Queen’s Bench Notice – Prerequisite Motions

The Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench has released a new notice regarding prerequisite motions.

Effective immediately, the Masters of the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench will be resuming the hearing of motions in the Family Division relating to the completion of prerequisites.

This notice amends the previous notice on April 7th, and is in effect until May 25, 2020.

Click here to see the notice.

This notice and all previous notices regarding changes due to COVID-19 can be found here on the Manitoba Courts Website.

Blog Round up

A bi-monthly round-up of blog posts from the Manitoba legal community for the months of March and April 2020

Clarke Immigration Law

Robson Crim Legal Blog

Matthew Gould Blog (Criminal Law)

Pitblado Law Blog

Taylor McCaffrey

TDS law

MLT Aikins

Michael Dyck Criminal Law Blog

Tom Rees Legal News

Consolidated legal updates from the Canadian Bar Association

The CBA has compiled a list of court notices and practice directions related to measures taken by courts across Canada for the COVID-19 situation.

Check their website here to stay up to date on all federal and provincial court notices.

Be sure to check out the other resources in their COVID-19 Resource Hub for more resources on mental health, professional development and advocacy.

ONCA on Post-verdict Delay

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently released a decision reducing the appellant’s 30 month sentence by five months for unreasonable post-verdict delay. R. v. Hartling, 2020 ONCA 243, concerns the amount of time it took to submit a Gladue report to the court.

From the decision by Benotto, J.A.

[96]      The post-verdict delay is another matter. It took 14 months after conviction for the sentence to be imposed. This delay was not caused by ineffective judicial management. It was not caused by the appellant, nor was it caused directly by the actions of the prosecutor. It was caused by the lack of institutional resources to obtain a Gladue report.

[97]      Immediately upon conviction, trial counsel obtained an order for a Gladue report from the trial judge. However, court administration services denied funding. At the time – as difficult to understand as it seems – there was only one Gladue writer in the Algoma district. There were no Gladue writers provided by Aboriginal Legal Services in the Algoma district. Therefore, there were only two options: (a) paying privately out of pocket; or (b) obtaining Legal Aid funding. Ultimately, the appellant, with the assistance of his counsel, chose to pay privately.

Further commentary is available from The Lawyers Daily.

Please note: The library will be closing early on Friday, December 13th at 11:00AM for a special event.  Regular library service will resume Monday, December 16th at 8:30AM.