R. v. CBC

(Red Deer, P.C. - Failing to Appear).  Provincial Courts across Alberta are packed with administrative offences. A criminal law administrative offence includes everything from breaching bail conditions, failing to appear for fingerprinting, failing to appear for court and more.  Notwithstanding that administrative offences are quite common, many accused were charged with failing to attend for docket court appearances during the COVID-19 pandemic when circuit point courts closed, with little notice or instructions to unrepresented accused; many who lined-up outside of locked courthouses. CBC's case was a bit different. In this case, CBC's defence counsel, David Chow, attempted to appear remotely (as instructed) but accidentally sent the remote appearance instruction to the wrong email. Interestingly, the Prosecutor's office was copied with this email. As a result of the misdirected email, CBC failed to appear. Though both the Court and Crown were notified about the problem prior to any warrant being issued, the Court nevertheless issued a warrant for failing to appear.  This case was set for trial. Prior to the commencement of trial, the Crown properly withdrew the charge. Though CBC was never guilty of this offence and the Crown properly withdrew the allegation, there remains many practical questions relating to the handling of the issuance of this warrant and the unnecessary strain on justice resources. Charged with failing to appear? David Chow is an Alberta criminal lawyer who appears in jurisdictions across the Province.