Alberta sheriffs round up dozens from downtown Calgary mall and force them into jury

[Faust]

Alberta sheriffs round up dozens from downtown Calgary mall and force them into jury duty:

https://calgary.citynews.ca/2022/06/...ons-jury-duty/

[Samonadreau]

Thats wild

[Snuffleupagus]

Far too many people ignore jury duty

[WhiteTiger]

While "force them to go to jury duty" is a rather good clickbait title, a more accurate one would have been "Summonsed them to go to Jury Duty Selection."

Been looking at this online, a bunch of info on Twitter about it. One of the first people so Summonsed said the whole thing took about 3.5 hours from being given the paper and going home, and was for two cases. One is a domestic violence case, which apparently goes through a lot of jurors before finding enough, and the other was a sexual assault of a minor that's been trying to be tried since 2017.

[SutterBrother]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Far too many people ignore jury duty

Feels like going after those people would be more equitable. What about the knock on effects? I’d hate to be running a restaurant in that food court. I’d imagine my customers would have second thoughts about going back there if this happened to them.

Hope it was just a one off for some reason.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

Hope it was just a one off for some reason.

As noted in the article, this was the first time it's happened in Calgary since 1996, and it happened because they went through the usual pool of 80 jurors without finding the full 12 they needed.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by SutterBrother

Feels like going after those people would be more equitable. What about the knock on effects? I’d hate to be running a restaurant in that food court. I’d imagine my customers would have second thoughts about going back there if this happened to them.

I was there the next day - the guys working on Olly Fresco's were saying that it was pretty dead for their normal lunch rush and they figured that word of mouth about that happening was the reason. The landlord was grabbing a shawarma from them and when he heard that he was pretty concerned as well. But according to the Olly's guys the sheriff said they hadn't had to do it since last century so I don't think it's going to somehow become a regular thing that you'd need to worry about (I don't anyway as a lawyer). I just wasn't aware that there was a criminal code provision that allowed it to be done that way.

Originally Posted by Criminal Code

Summoning other jurors when panel exhausted

642 (1) If a full jury and any alternate jurors considered advisable cannot be provided notwithstanding that the relevant provisions of this Part have been complied with, the court may, at the request of the prosecutor, order the sheriff or other proper officer to summon without delay as many persons, whether qualified jurors or not, as the court directs for the purpose of providing a full jury and alternate jurors.

(2) Jurors may be summoned under subsection (1) by word of mouth, if necessary.

[Fuzz]

It seems my covid protocols are also keeping me safe from jury duty. Nice.

[Amethyst]

I will avoid hanging out near court houses now!!

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Posted about this in the Random Thoughts thread the other day, and yeah it was weird. I walked from the westside +15 immediately going south so managed to avoid it. They had a Sheriff posted up at the north side and also the south but near the escalator at the top.

[lazypucker]

You just need to act like you are a criminal on the run, whenever you see someone in uniform from afar, just walk the other way...

[Cheese]

I loved being on a jury. I was voted foreman for that trial. Would gladly do it again, really a great learning experience and something everyone should do once.

[FlamesAddiction]

How common is it to actually be asked? I have never received a request to report for jury duty. I would probably do it though if I was able. It would kind of suck to get pulled into a really lengthy trial though.

[Snuffleupagus]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

How common is it to actually be asked? I have never received a request to report for jury duty. I would probably do it though if I was able. It would kind of suck to get pulled into a really lengthy trial though.

I know a lady who got the letter twice, she ignored it twice

They need to up the anti for jury duty, $50.00 a day is far too small.

[Amethyst]

I think it would be interesting. Unfortunately though, they don't pay much and while your employer must give you time off, they don't need to pay you anything to top it up. So anything more than a day or so becomes a significant expense.

I got a summons once, but asked to be excused and never had to go in.

[activeStick]

I was asked once and the commitment was for 39 days! I already had vacation booked though and was excused. A 39-day trial sounds like a pretty serious case so might've been interesting, though at the same time, not sure how work would've taken it even though I'm assuming they can't do anything about it despite 39 days away from work would be a pretty huge impact.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

How common is it to actually be asked? I have never received a request to report for jury duty. I would probably do it though if I was able. It would kind of suck to get pulled into a really lengthy trial though.

I got summoned when I was in University. No way could I afford to do it - classes missed and not working would've put me in a massive pickle. I phoned them and they immediately dismissed me.

[bc-chris]

i've gotten letters twice.

both times i mailed a letter asking to be excused due to being the primary wage earner in my house and being self employed with employees. both time i was excused.

[WhiteTiger]

I got a summons once, but of course, the selection was for a week I happened to be out of the country.

Haven't heard from them since.

[timun]

I had a couple juror summonses a few years ago, and at the first one one of the sheriffs who escorted us to the courtroom and gave a little bit of an introductory spiel warned us that if they went through the entire juror pool and didn't find enough people (12, and potentially two additional alternates) they could be empowered by the judge to deliver summonses with immediate effect to passers-by. He said it had been decades since they'd had to do it in Calgary, but warned us never to be near the Courts Centre over the noon hour on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

As noted in the article, this was the first time it's happened in Calgary since 1996, and it happened because they went through the usual pool of 80 jurors without finding the full 12 they needed.

A quick remark on the number of potential jurors: 80 people is an extraordinarily low turnout. At the two jury selections I attended we had around 300 people, just for one trial; in this case they only had 80 show up to fill two juries. I'm not surprised in the slightest that with so few people there they had to take these extraordinary measures. (Although with peremptory challenges no longer being a thing, I suppose the pool could be about 20 people smaller than before.)

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

I got a summons once, but of course, the selection was for a week I happened to be out of the country.

Haven't heard from them since.

Aren't you a police 911 dispatcher? I would think you'd be excluded from jury duty as an employee of the police service, although I admittedly don't know if that's the case or if you're considered an employee of the greater City of Calgary.