Covid cases disrupt court schedules

Patients who can't isolate at home isolate at hotel

Before the Province said Miramichi would be put into a “circuit breaker” starting on November 12th at 6pm in an attempt to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the area, it was beginning to look obvious that there were more cases than normal in the city by the number of people who were claiming in court that they had tested positive and could not attend.

Miramichi had reported very few cases up until September but then we began to report a few cases a day. In October the case count rose to about 4 to 6 cases a day, and then in the first 7 days of November the case count went to about 10 a day with a peak of 15 cases reported on November 6th.  The circuit breaker will require people from gathering to home with people who they do not live with.  Travel outside circuit breaker areas should only be for necessary reasons, and fully vaccinated people will not be restricted as to the businesses or entertainment venues they can go to. (more info at gov.nb.ca)

Since the Province went into lock down in March 2020, people entering the courthouse had to stay away if they didn’t have any personal business there or if they had Covid symptoms or came into contact with someone with the disease. In the early days this resulted in a lot of no-shows and delays, but the Covid excuses disappeared as the region inched its way toward the Green Phase and vaccination rates increased.

But in the past two weeks there have been five cases that have been delayed because the accused people said they had Covid or were in contact with someone who did. When they don’t attend court they appear by telephone, and they could be heard telling the judge they had tested positive.

On Monday Hubert Vienneau of Russellville attended court in person to deal with charges of assault and uttering threats. (He pleaded not guilty and set a trial date for the spring). Two days later on Wednesday Vienneau was due in court to have a trial on charges of break and enter at a policeman’s house in South Esk (Related Story: Vienneau points finger at McAllister ). But on Wednesday he did not attend, and his lawyer had a message for the court.

Legal Aid lawyer, Simon Wood, told Judge Landry that Vienneau had called him Tuesday afternoon and reported that he had given a person a drive to the Fundy Line Motel and the person was sick with Covid. Wood told Landry that the motel is the place designated by the Province where people are sent to isolate if they can’t isolate at home. Vienneau lives alone and has been ordered to isolate for 14 days and will return to court on November 29th to set a new trial date.

A few days before Vienneau’s court appearance Miramichi Online spoke to an employee at the motel inquiring about the people working there who were wearing head-to-toe protective clothing (as in the photo above). The employee confirmed there were people isolating at the hotel and the hotel was preparing meals for them, about a 20 at a time. Some people had transferred to the Fundy Line from another hotel, according to the employee, because they would not follow isolation rules at the other hotel. A security guard can be seen on the property.