Dozens of Calgarians were summoned for jury selection, immediately, during lunch hour at a downtown Calgary mall this week, invoking a rare procedure imported from England.
Alberta officers issued 50 summonses to people who were at the Core Mall on Thursday, documents that required the recipient to immediately go to the Calgary Court Center, a few blocks away.
The unusual course of action was enacted after the court realized the jury pool was not large enough for an upcoming trial, as too many jurors were exempt due to various factors, said Donna Spaner, a district attorney at jury selection that was in court Thursday. Among those factors were summer vacation and the subject of the trial, according to Spaner.
That resulted in a Queen’s Court judge issuing the summons to fill that gap, he said.
“The court clerks and the bailiff went to the mall and started serving members of the downtown crowd these summonses that required them to come to court,” Spaner said.
It’s been 20 years and I haven’t seen it before.– Donna Spaner, Alberta Jury Selection Prosecutor
“I can tell you with certainty that several people whose Thursday afternoon was an inconvenience weren’t particularly thrilled.”
He said that justice did a good job of keeping the afternoon “as efficient as possible” and recognizing the imposition it had on the people.
“But looking at it from the perspective of someone who is involved in the system, it really is remarkable that someone charged with an indictable offense … can have so much influence in a community,” he said.
“It’s been 20 years and I haven’t seen it before.”
Balfour Der, a criminal defense attorney and author of criminal law textbooks, said the procedure that was invoked Thursday is called Talesman, and it was imported into Canada from England.
“It’s just people who haven’t been cited. They are simply picked up off the streets and brought in to be part of the potential pool of potential jurors who might be chosen for a particular jury.”
But those looking for a soft pretzel or a new pair of shoes shouldn’t be afraid to hit the mall: Der says it’s rare for a potential jury to be completely exhausted for an upcoming trial.
“It’s used very rarely. It’s very rare that I ever exhaust a panel of potential jurors, but it can happen.”
Last used 26 years ago
A spokesman for Alberta Attorney General Tyler Shandro said the procedure was last enacted in Calgary in 1996 and Edmonton in December 2020.
“Section 642 (1) of the Penal Code provides that the presiding judge may… summon persons from nearby places to fill vacant positions on a jury when the jury panel has been exhausted before a full jury is selected “, reads the statement.
In this case, 80 potential jurors came to court to serve as jurors and there were not enough people to select two jurors. The first juror was selected, but the second was short of six jurors, so additional people were needed — he took an hour or two out of his day, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that if the people who were brought in Thursday are selected for jury duty, they will be asked to return to court for trial.
“Trial by jury is a cornerstone of our criminal justice system. Implicit in the right to trial by jury is that the jury will be chosen at random, and will be impartial and representative of the community at large. Jury management works worked hard to avoid the need to rely on the Talesman procedure,” the spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately, and as previously mentioned, the number of exempt potential jurors in the days leading up to and on the day of jury selection ultimately resulted in their use.”
Reference-www.cbc.ca