Manitoba Court Closures (Coronavirus / COVID 19 Response) - Fall 2020
On November 10, 2020, after the Province of Manitoba announced a province-wide red alert to deal with the increase in our COVID-19 rate, the Courts in Manitoba responded by shutting down most hearings for the next month. The initial announcement from the Provincial Court was on November 12, 2020. As the Province of Manitoba provided further updates about COVID-19 measures, the courts have extended the shutdown with a second announcement on November 30, 2020. Again on December 30, 2020, the courts extended the shutdown with a third announcement and are keeping courts closed until January 29, 2021.
Because most of the criminal cases are handled by the Provincial Court, I am going to focus on what you need to know to confirm when your next court date will be.
I will also endeavour to update this post as I receive updated information from the courts, so you can come back here. This post was last updated on January 6, 2021 at 4:47 pm.
The shutdown was supposed to end on Dec. 11, but was extended to Jan. 29, 2021
Provincial Court
On November 10, 2020, the Provincial Court of Manitoba sent out a notice that all courts would be cancelled except for major court centres (Winnipeg, Portage la Prairie, Brandon, Dauphin, The Pas, and Thompson) to handle in custody cases for both adults and youths. You can read the official notice by clicking here. If you are NOT in custody right now, you will NOT have a court appearance between November 12, 2020 and January 29, 2021. This means that first appearances, remand appearances, guilty plea dates, sentencing dates, and trial dates for people who are NOT in custody are all being cancelled and will have to be rescheduled.
What is my new court date?
If you do not have a lawyer but would like some help with your case, please click here to contact me and I would be happy to help you with your case. I am happy to arrange meetings by phone, video conference, or in person (on a case by case basis). We can also complete Legal Aid applications over the phone.
If you were recently arrested and released by the police with a court date between now and January 29, 2021, you can find out when your “new” first court appearance will be clicking on one of the links below.
Winnipeg
Winnipeg Legal Aid Administrative Court
Brandon, Thompson, The Pas, Dauphin, or Portage la Prairie
All other rural court appearances
You can always call the Provincial Court to confirm what your next court date will be at 204-945-3454, ext. 1 for English and then ext. 0 for reception.
If you have a lawyer already
If you have a lawyer, you can contact him or her to find out when your new court date will be. Please keep in mind, if you had a guilty plea date, sentencing date, or trial date arranged between November 12 and January 29, your lawyer will have to coordinate a new date with both the court office and the assigned Crown Attorney and that will take some time to organize. So please, be patient as we reschedule and finalize new dates. (If you are already a client of Rees Dyck Rogala, you can contact Kyra at Front Reception at our firm to confirm your next court date 204-415-5544 ext. 0).
Provincial Court - Northern Communities
On October 30, 2020, the Provincial Court of Manitoba sent out a notice that some court locations would not see court resuming until at least January 2021 (Brochet First Nations, Cross Lake, and Norway House). A list of other court locations did not expect to hold court for the foreseeable future (Gillam, God’s Lake Narrows, God’s River, Lac Brochet, Oxford House, Peguis, Poplar River, Pukatawgan, Shamattawa, South Indian Lake, Split Lake, and Waywayseecappo). There was a plan to return to several communities in November (Garden Hill, Churchill, St. Martin, and Sioux Valley). You can read the official notice by clicking here. However, after the announcement on November 30, 2020, all rural court dates are cancelled until at least January 8th.
Traffic Court at 373 Broadway
The Provincial Offences Court office at 373 Broadway will be closed to the public between November 12, 2020 and January 29, 2021. Any court appearances between those dates will have to be rescheduled. Click here to see the official court notice about traffic tickets. The court notice says that the new date and time will be sent to you, but you can also follow up with them directly by phone 204-945-3156 or 1-800-282-8069 ext 3156 or by email to poc@gov.mb.ca.
Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench
On November 10, 2020, the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench announced that all matters scheduled to appear between November 16 to December 11 were cancelled, except for judge-alone criminal trials with an accused in custody. All jury trials that were going to start during this time will be rescheduled, but trials already in progress are allowed to finish. You can read the official notice by clicking here. The Court is prepared to allow virtual trials to proceed with permission from the Associate Chief Justice on a case-by-case basis. Many other judicial services that were being offered by video or audio conference are going to continue (including criminal, civil, family, and child protection matters).
Manitoba Court of Appeal
On November 2, 2020, the Manitoba Court of Appeal announced that all hearings would be conducted remotely (by telephone or video appearances) until further notice. You can read the official notice by clicking here. There were no updates or changes to this policy after the provincial announcement.
About the author
Michael Dyck is a partner at Rees Dyck Rogala Law Offices. He represents clients primarily from Winnipeg, Steinbach, and rural Manitoba. He has extensive experience helping people charged with criminal offences and focuses on building legal strategy with clients. To read more of his articles, please visit his partner's website TomRees.ca.