From food court to criminal court: Why people are being plucked off the street for jury duty
CBC
For those who dread jury duty, the idea of being plucked off the street and sent to court to immediately sit on a jury might sound like a nightmare, but it happens in Canada more often than you might imagine.
Earlier this month, 50 Calgarians were summoned from a mall's food court, at lunch time, and told to go at once to the nearby Calgary Courts Centre to participate in jury selection.
This was because the court realized the jury pool wasn't big enough for an upcoming trial — too many prospective jurors had been exempted, according to a prosecutor who was at court.
So a justice issued orders to find more.
The procedure, known as "talesman," was imported in the 1800s from England — and can be invoked by a court anywhere in Canada as a last resort to fill spots on a jury.
English sheriffs "could simply go and … say, 'Come with me. You're now going to be a juror,'" said James C. Oldham, professor emeritus of law and legal history at Georgetown University.
Those jurors were known as "talesmen."
Prospective jurors in Canada are typically selected from voter or health registration lists, and receive a summons in the mail.
Those who fail to show up can be fined or jailed, though the penalties vary between provinces and territories and are often left to a judge's discretion.
A talesman summons carries the same weight, though legal experts say the procedure is rarely used today. Some told CBC News they weren't even aware of it, or didn't know enough to comment.
But it's been invoked at least once a year in Canada since 2018, according to information provided to CBC News by provinces and territories.
In September 2021, prospective jurors were picked at random in public in Steinbach, Man.; one of six times in the past 15 years that a Manitoba court has invoked the talesman procedure.
It was last used in Saskatchewan in 2018 and Yukon in 2019, and by Newfoundland and Labrador in 2020, say officials.
In 2016, 21 people were summonsed from a grocery story and gas stations for a trial in the Northwest Territories.
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