A Victoria provincial court judge called the shortage of sheriffs “appalling” Monday morning after her trial court was delayed by more than two hours.
“Two hours of court time utterly and completely wasted because of the shortage of sheriffs. That is appalling,” said Judge Loretta Chaperon.
When the court proceedings got underway at around 11:30 a.m., Crown prosecutor Joselyn Byrne told Chaperon they only had one hour for the trial.
“At 2 p.m., the sheriffs need to be deployed elsewhere,” said Byrne.
The Crown’s witness for the sexual-assault trial, who was in custody, had been waiting in cells for two hours. A Saanich police officer, who was waiting to testify, had been at the courthouse since 8:30 a.m.
The officer was on a regular day off and being paid overtime.
“A two-day trial is reduced to one hour today,” said Chaperon. “This is simply appalling.”
Last week, provincial court Judge Carmen Rogers was forced to adjourn two cases because of the lack of sheriffs. Victoria courtrooms were closed on Monday and Wednesday and trials were delayed two hours on Tuesday.
“We can’t run our courtrooms without the sheriffs. They are important to the security of the participants and the security of the courtroom, as well as the orderly conduct of proceedings. So unfortunately, we do not have sheriffs to deal with either of these matters. I apologize. I can’t do anything more than that,” said Rogers.
Attorney General David Eby said the government has committed to take action to increase the number of court sheriffs and staff of the Court Services Branch to reduce delays and provide a court system that is able to hear and resolve disputes in a timely matter.
“We recognize that Victoria is facing recruitment challenges and are always looking at how best to deploy staff through our ongoing recruitment campaign,” said Eby.
Last week, 30 sheriff recruits graduated from the Justice Institute, bringing the complement to 490 throughout the province. But none of the new recruits are being sent to the Victoria courthouse. According to a government statement, 24 will be sent to the Lower Mainland, two will go to Oliver, and one each will be deployed to Kamloops, Nanaimo, Prince George and Dawson Creek.
Last week, at least one sheriff was flown in from Prince George to ease the shortage.
“It’s a scramble day in and day out,” said Dean Purdy, spokesman for the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, which represents sheriffs. “They’re trying to plug holes in the courtroom with managers and supervisors.”
That certainly seemed to be the case on Monday, as sheriffs scurried down the hall with court lists, talking into their radios. Other sheriffs were asked to work through their lunch breaks.
Two jury trials and one dangerous-offender hearing are underway in B.C. Supreme Court.
According to Purdy, the disparity in wages between sheriffs and police is at the root of the problem.
Sheriffs are the lowest paid of the enforcement agencies in B.C., said Purdy. Sheriffs are paid $58,000 a year. By comparison, the average salary of a municipal police officer is $93,000.
“They can hire all the new recruit classes they want. The RCMP and municipal police forces are aggressively recruiting both sheriffs and correctional officers right out of the Justice Institute,” said Purdy.”
In the last 16 years, sheriffs and correctional officers have received smaller increases than police officers, resulting in a wider gap, Purdy said.
In February, a B.C. Supreme Court justice freed an accused cocaine trafficker because there was no sheriff to lead the man from his cell at the Victoria courthouse to the courtroom. Within the week, another justice had freed an alleged heroin trafficker because no sheriffs were available for his trial.
Former attorney general Suzanne Anton called the situation “a bit of an anomaly.” But in the following days, Anton had several meetings with her officials and increased her budget by $2.7 million to train more sheriffs.
The new government has inherited the problem, Purdy said.
In mid-September, the union met with Attorney General David Eby and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth. The parties plan to meet again within the month.
“We’re not saying sheriffs need to be paid as much as police, but we need to close that gap about halfway and bring salaries closer to $71,000,” said Purdy.
Eby noted that benefits add 24 per cent to sheriff salaries. Discussions of sheriff salaries should take place in the appropriate collective-bargaining process, he said.
