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All Provincial Court locations in British Columbia will be closed on Friday, September 30 in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The BC Provincial Court’s Interior Region stretches from Princeton to the Alberta border and from Golden to the US border. Judges and judicial justices sit in 21 court locations in this region, as well as in two virtual bail courts where all participants appear by video or telephone. Maintaining court operations throughout the region has posed particular challenges in the last 18 months.
From time to time retirement ceremonies are held in BC courthouses to honour a retiring judge. Colleagues, court staff, and others gather in a courtroom on the judge’s last sitting day and say mostly kind things. On June 6, 2022, staff at the Penticton courthouse organized a retirement ceremony with a difference - the retiree they were honouring was a dog!
On June 2, 2022, in Port Alberni, a swearing-in ceremony in the BC Provincial Court saw an Indigenous woman judge preside while an Indigenous woman court clerk administered the oath of office to an Indigenous woman justice of the peace.
BC’s Provincial Court Judges drive thousands of kilometres a year travelling between more than 80 court locations around the province. Whether their commute takes them through the Deas Island Tunnel from Surrey to Vancouver or along Highway 97 from Dawson Creek to Fort St.