Criminal charges stayed in case that highlights legal shortfalls in remote communities

Lengthy delays have resulted in a stay of proceedings against a woman accused of stealing money from the parent advisory council of an elementary school in Bella Coola on B.C.'s Central Coast.

In a decision that highlights the difficulty of administering justice in remote Canadian communities, B.C. provincial court Judge Dan Sudeyko said it was unreasonable to take nearly four years to hold a trial that was only supposed to last a handful of days.

Chrystal Ann Nygaard was charged in August 2016 with several counts of theft under $5,000 in relation to funds belonging to parents at Bella Coola Elementary.

But trials only happen in the community of approximately 2,000 people through a circuit court that brings lawyers, court workers and a judge into Bella Coola four times a year.

As Sudeyko explained in his ruling — the logistics of flying into the Bella Coola Valley (and sometimes being forced to drive into town on a narrow, steep road built "contrary to some engineering advice") mean even a good week involves only 3.5 days of actual court time.

And if there's a hearing for a murder charge, a complicated family matter or anything else that requires time to address "the ongoing work of the court is sacrificed."

"It is my view that under the present circumstances, the circuit court sittings just four times per year cannot accommodate matters realistically estimated to require more than two full days or trial time," the judge wrote.

"Otherwise unreasonable delay will be the result."

Exceptional circumstances

The ruling means that Nygaard will never have a chance to publicly clear her name and the victims of her alleged crimes will never have a chance to see justice.

The trial was originally set for two and a half days but there was some initial delay in providing police disclosure, and the court schedule was booked in 2017, meaning the first dates available were in March 2018.

The case proceeded on partial dates in the circuit court visits that followed, and the estimated time needed to hold the trial more than doubled. 

Sudeyko said the earliest date of trial completion was June 2020, 42 months after the charges were sworn — well over the 18-month limit set for provincial court cases by the Supreme Court of Canada in a case known as Jordan.

In its ruling on that case, Canada's highest court said the Crown had to show that "exceptional circumstances" meant an otherwise unreasonable delay was acceptable.

The Crown in Nygaard's case argued — essentially — that the unique circumstances of trying to hold a trial in Bella Coola amounted to exceptional circumstances in and of themselves.

Distance, flight time, unforgiving climate

It's not the first time the courts have considered the difficulties of providing justice to remote communities in the context of a Jordan application.

In a 2018 case, the Nunavut Court of Justice looked at the challenges of serving 38,000 people spread over territory that covers two-thirds of the Canadian land mass. Distances are enormous. Flight times are lengthy. The climate is unforgiving.

And cultural traditions result in the cancellation of court dates for burials and funerals as well as seasonal hunts.

But Sudeyko found that while some of the same considerations exist in Bella Coola, they're nowhere near the level that they were in the Nunavut case.

In fact, he pointed to an error in the calculations used to set Nygaard's first trial dates as the initial problem that threw the matter off track, ultimately leading to much of the overall delay.

But the judge said the courts still needed to address the issues inherent in trying to administer justice in Bella Coola.

He recommended special sittings were needed for court cases expected to take longer than two days, saying that would be best accomplished by dedicating at least one additional week per year for members of the court team to deal with those matters.