New trial ordered in case arising from feud between judges

The fallout continues from a battle that has pitted a Nova Scotia provincial court judge against the system she used to work in.

In a decision released this week, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court overturned a ruling that stayed charges in a case in which Judge Rickcola Brinton heard evidence but never rendered a verdict.

Brinton has not presided in a courtroom since the fall of 2021 when she went on leave after refusing to disclose her vaccination status at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The chief provincial court judge at the time, Pam Williams, had introduced a policy requiring judges to be fully vaccinated to sit in Nova Scotia courtrooms. The dispute prompted Brinton to launch a lawsuit, naming Williams as a respondent.

Brinton had a number of cases pending when she went on leave, including that of Tanya Rhoda Prosper, who was facing two charges of impaired driving for incidents dating back to 2019.

After several delays in Prosper's case, a mistrial was eventually declared and Prosper raised concerns about the delays. By that time, a new judge, Bronwyn Duffy, had taken over the file and on May 18, 2023, Duffy ruled in Prosper's favour, entering a stay on the charges she was facing.

Crown appeal

The Crown appealed Duffy's ruling and this week Supreme Court Justice Scott Norton overturned the stay and ordered a new trial on the impaired driving charges.

Norton found that Duffy's calculation of the amount of time that had elapsed was incorrect and that Prosper had not faced unreasonable delay. There's no word yet on when a new trial might be held.

The Prosper case was the second one Duffy inherited that Brinton started but failed to complete. Duffy entered a stay in the other case as well, and that decision was upheld by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal.