FIFA fever is expected to grip much of the province next year as Vancouver prepares to be one of the host cities for the 2026 World Cup matches, with not even B.C.'s court system escaping the tournament's far-reaching impacts, according to the latest announcement from the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
Chief Justice Ron Skolrood announced on Monday (July 7) that all criminal trials and civil jury trials set to take place during the 2026 FIFA World Cup will have to be rescheduled at the Vancouver, New Westminster, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack courts.
"The important priorities of public safety and traffic and crowd management during the event will draw heavily on police resources in the Lower Mainland and potentially elsewhere in the province," Skolrood said.
He explained that a lack of police resources to assist with court operations would undoubtedly impact many aspects of the criminal proceedings, especially the transportation of accused individuals, jury management, and courthouse security.
"The full extent of the impacts is uncertain and will remain so for some time," Skolrood said.
"Downtown Vancouver and other areas of the Lower Mainland may see heavy traffic congestion. Hotel rooms may be difficult to secure for deliberating juries or for out-of-town witnesses."
Premier David Eby also recognized the massive impact that this event will have on the province, especially throughout the Lower Mainland.
"We will have millions and millions of people watching the games taking place here in British Columbia," Eby said.
This suspension of criminal trials and civil jury trials will take effect from June 12 to July 8 of next year, with more details on how to reschedule the impacted trials expected to be released by July 31, 2025.
The Supreme Court of B.C. clarified that all criminal jury trials and judge-alone trials will need to be rescheduled if part of the proceedings are currently scheduled to take place during the impacted time period.
Anyone who already has a judge assigned to their affected case will need to arrange a case management conference to discuss how the case will be rescheduled.
However, criminal trials without an assigned judge will need to schedule a fix-date appearance and determine the need dates of the proceedings.
Any criminal jury selections will also not take place during this time period.
For civil jury trials, those who requested a jury civil trial will have the option to convert to a non-jury trial without having the schedule impacted by the World Cup court suspension.
Vancouver is one of 16 host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, coming at an estimated cost of up to $624 million for the province.
Eby explained that this isn't the first time that such a disruption has taken place in B.C., with a similar court suspension occurring during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
"This will be a huge and positive impact to our economy, but there will be disruptions," Eby said.
"Just like during the Winter Olympics, when British Columbians became accustomed to putting up with a certain amount of disruption in order to be able to host that event. We will work with the courts, with the hospitals, and the police."
The 2026 games are set to take place at BC Place Stadium on:
鈥� Saturday, June 13
鈥� Thursday, June 18
鈥� Sunday, June 21
鈥� Wednesday, June 24
鈥� Friday, June 26
鈥� Thursday, July 2
鈥� Tuesday, July 7
Full details on the Vancouver portion of the 2026 FIFA World Cup can be found at .
