Power outage shuts down provincial courthouses and other government buildings

CALGARY – An underground fire at an electrical substation has left several government buildings in downtown Calgary without power, including McDougall Centre, AMEC Building, JJ Bowlen, and Calgary Court Centre.

Operations at these buildings will be impacted until power is fully restored, likely Thursday afternoon.

“The province is offering support to the City of Calgary in its time of need. Our Alberta Emergency Management Agency is assisting with logistics coordination and will continue this work until power is restored,” says Premier Jim Prentice.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The province is offering support to the City of Calgary in its time of need. Our Alberta Emergency Management Agency is assisting with logistics coordination and will continue this work until power is restored," says Premier Jim Prentice.

The Calgary Courts Centre will be closed on October 14, 15 and 16.

Shamsher Kothari is currently counsel for Milowe Brost. He’s one of the men accused in what Mounties once called the largest Ponzi scheme in Canadian history.

The trial is already expected to last six months. Kothari expects this week’s delays will be hardest on jury members.

“The most difficult part is the inconvenience for the members of the jury because they’ve already been inconvenienced to such a degree because of the length of this case,” says Kothari.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The most difficult part is the inconvenience for the members of the jury because they've already been inconvenienced to such a degree because of the length of this case," says Kothari.

Many of the civil and criminal matters will be put over until next week to set new dates.

Emergency applications will be dealt with by a Queen’s Bench Justice at the Court of Appeal at TransCanada Pipelines Tower.

Other in-custody provincial criminal matters will be heard out of town, in Turner Valley.

“Having been a prosecutor as long as I did and now defence counsel, I know it’s hard on both sides… [on the] accused, if their cases get delayed, [and] on victims [and] their families because they are also looking for their day in court. It takes a certain amount of courage to come forward, so it’s hard both ways,” says defence lawyer Balfour Der.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Having been a prosecutor as long as I did and now defence counsel, I know it's hard on both sides… [on the] accused, if their cases get delayed, [and] on victims [and] their families because they are also looking for their day in court. It takes a certain amount of courage to come forward, so it's hard both ways," says defence lawyer Balfour Der.

The following numbers will be set up Tuesday morning for members of the public to inquire about court matters:

• 403-476-4819
• 403-592-4933
• or 403-297-7235 for Court of Queens Bench

Additional information:

http://albertacourts.ab.ca/ProvincialCourt/Announcements/tabid/102/Default.aspx

http://www.albertacourts.ab.ca/courtofqueensbench/announcements/tabid/92/default.aspx