eNews: Other Topics
In September, Chief Judge Gillespie gave a speech welcoming the Faculty of Law Class of 2025 at Thompson Rivers University. Her “Ten things to think about” were so well received that eNews persuaded her to let us share them.
“Congratulations and welcome to the next new and exciting academic and personal journey in your life.
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.