B.C. judge who led child-welfare inquiry and championed Vancouver community court retires

A judge considered the driving force behind Vancouver's Downtown Community Court heard his last case Thursday.

Provincial court Judge Thomas Gove, who is retiring after serving on the bench for 30 years, was lauded by colleagues including lawyers, sheriffs and fellow judges.

Over the course of his career, Gove has dealt with cases involving Vancouver's most vulnerable people, including children.

"I hope that I have solved more problems than I created over the years," he said. "This is especially so in family cases and criminal sentencing."

Career focused on youth, mental illness

In 1995, Gove led a provincial inquiry into the death of Matthew Vaudreuil, who died when he was six years old following years of neglect by his mother, despite being under the watch of dozens of social workers.

His inquiry found that about half of the Ministry of Children and Family Development's child protection workers didn't have appropriate academic requirements to do the job, and only about 20 per cent were subject to professional regulations.

Gove's work led to the creation of a new ministry in B.C. for children and the independent agency to investigate child deaths.

After he heard his last case Thursday, Chief Judge Melissa Gillespie addressed the courtroom packed with family and friends.

"Your strength and your courage to make independent decisions and your willingness to solve problems has left a lasting legacy of positive changes in our justice system in British Columbia," said Gillespie.

In 2008, he became a champion for the Downtown Community Court, where he often dealt with repeat offenders, many of whom had mental health and addiction issues.

Over the years, Gove gained a reputation for being ahead of his time. He wanted the focus to be on treatment, rather than sentences, and made a point of getting to know the neighbourhood. 

"We often sentence people today without having a real understanding as to who they are and what they're about," he said when the community court launched in 2008.

Gove was also known for his affinity with the media and was regularly featured in news stories over the years.

On his last day on the bench, cameras were allowed inside court room 101 in Vancouver provincial court despite strict rules that usually forbid them. 

"I have never seen cameras inside courtroom 101," said defence lawyer Chris Johnson. 

In a short speech, Johnson described qualities which defence lawyers appreciated in Gove.

"He remained and has remained hardworking, flexible, thoughtful and positive. He has never, to my knowledge, fallen into negativity or bitterness while on the bench."

However, he said that even Gove had his eccentricities and recalled the time when he ordered an accused "not to possess any beef jerky or any beef jerky like products."

Gove's final comments as a sitting judge focused attention back on the condition of the people he served.

"The number of people that come before the courts that are mentally ill, that are seriously drug addicted, who have brain damage often from the use of methamphetamine, is substantially different from when I started as a judge 30 years ago and I think that has to be recognized," he said.