Friendly Reminder – Testimonials from victims and witnesses

*** REMINDER****

Dear Community Organizations:

Greetings!

Testimonial accommodations allow victims and witnesses to testify behind a screen/other device or outside of the courtroom. The Criminal Code has enabled the use of testimonial accommodations since 2006. In 2015, the Criminal Codewas amended to further expand the availability and accessibility of testimonial accommodations to allow the witness to remain in the courtroom when the witness testifies at a preliminary inquiry or trial.

The Court Services Branch (CSB) is planning to host a community engagement outreach session with justice system staff personnel and community organizations to identify and discuss opportunities, challenges, best practices and lessons learned on testimonial accommodation for vulnerable witnesses and victims.

The main objectives of this workshop will be to:

• Educate and inform community partners and stakeholders on criminal justice programs and services (court administration and registry services, criminal justice services and victim services)
• Engage and consult with the community to learn more about community and client needs and desires in relation to court technologies and testimonial accommodation
• Identify and address various program, policy and service delivery gaps (if any)
• Use information gathered from sessions to better inform CSB on policy program direction and general purchasing direction on future testimonial accommodation equipment and systems

We will be hosting this workshop on Friday, September 8^th, 2017 at the Vancouver Law Courts from 10AM to 2PM.

Lunch will be provided. Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses.

If your organization is interested in attending, please respond to this email with the name, title and email address of the representative.

Space is limited – At this time, each organization is limited to sending only one representative.

Registration is based on a first come, first served basis.

Official invitations will be sent out once participants have registered.

Feel free to forward this email on to other interested organizations and/or individuals as you see fit.

Should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Thank you for your attention on this matter.

Regards,

Alvin

Alvin Lau | Senior Policy Analyst
Policy, Legislation and Issues Management
Court Services Branch (Headquarters) | Ministry of Attorney General
Province of British Columbia
Phone: 250-356-9607 | Fax: 250-356-8152 | Email