A courtroom at the Edmonton Law Courts building, in Edmonton on June 28, 2019.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
The death of the Queen on Thursday means a name change for a handful of Canadian courts, and changes in the way cases are styled country-wide. But the monarchy continues as a pervasive symbol in Canada’s legal system.
Four provinces, as of Wednesday, had superior courts called Courts of Queen’s Bench. Under provincial legislation, the names changed immediately on the Queen’s death. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick each now has a Court of King’s Bench.
“In constitutional law, the throne is never vacant,” University of Calgary law dean Ian Holloway said. “The judges who administer justice constitutionally as agents of the sovereign automatically assume the title of judges of the Court of King’s Bench,” where before they were on a Court of Queen’s Bench.
The change in nomenclature means modest disruption and some costs. Signs at courthouses need to be changed, as do electronic signs; the metal seals with which court rulings are stamped need to be updated. The court websites in these four provinces were in various states of change on Friday. Lawyers need to make changes on forms they fill out for the courts.
King Charles’s accession ceremony to take place Saturday at Rideau Hall
Canadians across country mourn Queen Elizabeth, a ‘steady presence through tumultuous times’
In King Charles, Canada can expect a very different monarch
Even courts that do not have “Queen” in their names published instructions about the changeover to a king. Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crampton, in a notice to the legal profession on Friday afternoon, said that where the Crown is a party to a proceeding, “parties should designate ‘His Majesty the King’ rather than ‘Her Majesty the Queen.’ ” But for cases already pending, “the designation will be considered to have been so altered without the need to bring a motion to amend the style of cause [the case name].”
Criminal cases were styled Regina – Latin for Queen – versus the name of the person charged. Now, for the King, it will be Rex, rather than Regina; both go by the short form R. A civil suit against, say, Alberta or Ontario, would be brought against His Majesty the King in right of Alberta or Ontario.
“The queen or king is the personification of the state,” Dean Holloway said. “Criminal law originated in concerns about breaches of the king’s peace.” The public interest is synonymous with the sovereign, he said.
Alberta’s Court of King’s Bench tweeted a statement encouraging lawyers and litigants to adopt the new nomenclature in their filings, while saying the court will “continue to accept forms referencing Queen’s Bench, until further notice.”
“We’re going to give people plenty of time to adjust to the change,” Darryl Ruether, executive legal counsel to the court, said in an interview.
The court itself had been in discussions with the province about changing its name, according to its 2017-18 report.
“We thought it would be a good time to think about it because we were looking to the prospect of yesterday and today, and having to turn on a dime,” Mr. Ruether said. “And eventually, we will have another monarch, or head of state, who is not male, and then we would be in a position of having to do this all over again.”
But the current government decided to stick with tradition.
Avnish Nanda, a lawyer who practices in Alberta and B.C., said he would like to see the monarchy unwound from the system. “I think the purpose [of the current system] is to instill a set of values tied to the monarchy, tied to a particular tradition that most Canadians have moved away from.”
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.