Not many places have a Prothonotary, but we have one here on PEI. Our Prothonotary is responsible for:
- Assessment of all costs, both party-party and solicitor-client costs;
- mediation of all small claims cases,
- garnishee hearings, and criminal show-cause hearings for Provincial Court,
- execution of conveyances, transfers or mortgages ordered by the Court,
- issuing subpoenas for inferior courts/tribunals,
- hearing all uncontested motions, applications and references.
Our Prothonotary is also “empowered by the Marriage Act to perform civil wedding ceremonies.” And this morning he was quoted by the CBC as saying the following about the possibility of being called upon to perform same-sex marriages:
“I’m not allowed to discriminate for any purposes in the performance of my job and I don’t see how the government could really allow me to discriminate. Because then why can’t other people discriminate in other rights issues. I could do it on the basis of race, I could do it on the basis of language.”
Rock on.
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Comments
Lots of places have
Lots of places have prothonotaries. It is another name for registrar or clerk of a court or tribunal. More interesting is that it is a warbler. It is, however and as you say, somewhat gratifying to see a PEI government official planning to honour The Charter. I wonder which is rarer, that or the warbler?
Charlie Thompson, who was the
Charlie Thompson, who was the person quoted on the CBC piece, is a star of the very highest magnitude. I am glad to be able to say so in public nd I am very happy to see him congratulated for straight thinking fellow he is.
…and he is, in my experience,
…and he is, in my experience, the public servant most consistently able to get away with wearing jeans to work.
Go Protho!
Go Protho!
I suppose it is just as good
I suppose it is just as good having a population’s access to a right under The Charter being based on one official’s personality.
If you’ve ever dealt with the
If you’ve ever dealt with the Prothonotarie’s office in PEI you’d perhaps have come to the conclusion that civil marriage is a tiny part of what might go wrong in that office!
Ann, you’ve obviously never
Ann, you’ve obviously never had to scrape your boots after leaving that office!
I hear you “Been”… The muck
I hear you “Been”… The muck runs deep in that branch of what passes for our itty bitty provincial government here on the sand bar.
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