BC courts respond to COVID-19 and emergency measures legislation both federal and provincial

Both the BC Provincial Court, and BC Supreme Court have adjourned all, but the most urgent cases, scheduled from now until early May. 

Urgent cases, that will proceed, include in-custody bail hearing, in custody criminal trial, and urgent cases including child protection, house evictions, refusal of treatment and end of life matters, orders under the Quarantine Act or the Public Health Act, or a variety of other urgent cases, as determined by a judge on a written application.

Witnesses, jurors, and others with cases scheduled prior to the beginning of May have been directed not to attend court unless they are specifically directed otherwise. 

Both the BC Provincial Court and BC Supreme Court are providing frequently updated directions with respect to how cases, urgent or otherwise, are to be handled on their web sites.

In other legal news, both the province of BC, and the federal government, have legislation to address public health emergencies. Federally there is the Emergencies Act, and provincially there is the Emergency Program Act.

So far, the province is utilizing the legislation, but the federal government is not.

Both pieces of legislation permit temporary emergency government actions without the need for legislation to be passed in the ordinary way. 

One of the interesting provisions of the provincial legislation is the power to “authorize or require any person to render assistance of a type that the person is qualified to provide or that otherwise is or may be required to prevent, respond to or alleviate the effects of an emergency or disaster”.

This authority would seem broad enough to allow qualified people to be “authorized” to provide assistance with things they might not ordinarily be permitted to do. This might include authorization for people with lapsed credentials, or training from other jurisdictions, to assist with medical care in an emergency. 

As discussed last week, BC is the only jurisdiction in Canada without any Employment Standards Act requirement that employers provide any sick leave for employees. On that front, the premier has suggested this will be remedied in an emergency sitting of the legislature next week.

Follow this link for a transcript of the show and links to the legislation discussed.