City Notebook: Legal notes and local ties

By COLLIN GALLANT on November 26, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Recently appointed Provincial Court Judge Mark Mastel presided over his first docket court session in Medicine Hat on Thursday.

If you noted the surname, you might assume the recent chief Crown prosecutor in the Slave Lake region is a native of the southeast Alberta, and you’d be right.

Judges don’t get into the game for publicity, but it should be noted the appointment addresses a delicate problem that Alberta Justice has had over the years in the region.

The general thinking is that it’s better to have judges based in the district they are assigned. That lends to familiarity and availability, and, hopefully a more expeditious justice system.

One hitch though, is that a judge must come off a case if they have past history with a defendant, witnesses or police involved in the file. That makes it difficult for former defence attorneys or prosecutors to preside where they practise.

Another hiccup specific to Medicine Hat is that recent appointments to the Southern District typically haven’t taken up permanent residence here.

Does that speak to an unsettled legal landscape?

During this fall’s legal-aid funding dispute, Hatters found out that no local barristers take on such cases. Out-of-town lawyers deal with local cases one day per week in person or via internet conferencing, which is more and more common. That’s a great help, or a hindrance, depending who you ask.

It can make judges more of a scheduling secretary. It is court, after all.

On the upside, there are new Crown prosecutors (under a new contract with the province) and a new funding agreement for legal aid that appears satisfactory.

Unfortunately, the local legal community has also been notably absent from King’s (nee Queen’s) Counsel appointments for sometime.

Queen’s medals

Twenty residents of the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding received Queen’s Jubilee medals in Brooks on Friday at a ceremony with MLA and premier Danielle Smith, including Hatters Chris Hellman (he of many charitable causes), Rick Armstrong (Our Collective Journey), Marg Derbyshire (longtime educator and school sports promoter), Natasha Carvalho (local Women’s shelter head), Lt.-Col. Stephen Burke (CFB Suffield base commander) and local businesswoman Kole Van Maarion. Other notables include former Newell County Reeve Molly Douglas and former Brooks city councillor Norm Gerestein.

Quick-ones

– Hat-based franchise health food chain Nutters opened location No. 24 in Western Canada this month with an outlet in downtown Kamloops.

– The default power rate for December will be about 23 cents per kilowatt hour, so about three times the fixed rate offered by the City of Medicine Hat. We found out this week that the enormous cost savings for customers during this wild year were essentially a mistake, but don’t expect the utility prices or the debate about the city utility to calm down any time soon.

– Tigers attendance has been abysmal this season, but might a matinee on Sunday turn that around for the improving squad?

– Trevor Anhel is the new Chamber of Commerce president after the conclusion of Scott Lehr’s term at helm on Thursday.

– Kerfuffle in Taber after 20 ostriches escaped their pens and required the RCMP and the rancher to round them up. Feathers flew on social media after video showed the owner attempting to grab the birds by the neck to subdue them. But, if anybody’s got a better idea, let’s hear it.

– On the same topic, we can’t believe there wasn’t some statement about how an Alberta Provincial Police Force could have done it better.

A look ahead

The fall sitting of the provincial legislature opens on Tuesday with the swearing in of new Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Premier Danielle Smith.

100 years ago

The Canadian wheat harvest, if moved all at once, would require a train 1,946 miles long, the length from Medicine Hat to near Montreal, the News reported to give perspective to the exceptional yield in 1922.

In another example, about 16 million bushels had been brought to market by farmers on the Medicine Hat subdivision of the Canadian Pacific rail system, about the same amount grown in the entire province of Alberta in 1911.

The winner of the Alberta Poultry Cup was a Barred Rock hen at the Lethbridge experimental farm that laid 295 eggs in 365 days.

New rules for amateur hockey goalies allowed them to kneel to stop a puck, but no longer throw it afterwards.

Two boys broke through the South Saskatchewan River ice while sleighing beneath the train bridge. Only one was revived by Dr. Gershaw.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com