Jury trials returning in N.W.T. after backlog built up due to COVID-19

A jury trial began Monday in Yellowknife for a man charged with sexual assault.

It's only the second jury trial to take placein the territory since the start of the pandemic.

Though court sittings are permitted to proceed as an essential service in the Northwest Territories, court services are required to seek exceptions for proceedings requiring more people than are allowable under public health orders, such as jury trials.

Chief Justice Louise Charbonneaucancelled jury trials when the pandemic began in March 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

There are currently 87 jury trials listed as pending in the N.W.T. Supreme Court.

A spokesperson for territory's Department of Justice said in an email that the court took steps to schedule jury trials "as early as waspossible when restrictions eased," but that "previously scheduled trials were cancelled or resolved in various ways before commencing."

The trials on backlog include cases of murder, sexual assault and drug trafficking.

Both the current trial, and the first of the pandemic which took place in August, were set in the Explorer Hotel where jurors can be spaced further apart than in a courtroom.

Those facing criminal charges have a constitutional right to be tried within 30 months in superior courts and 18 months in provincial courts. Though the limit can be extended in cases where the delay is because ofexceptional circumstances out of the prosecutor's control.

Another Yellowknife jury trial is scheduled next month at the Chateau Nova hotel.