Judge Joëlle Roy is once again rebuffed by the Court of Appeal, this time in the case of the former leader of a far-right group who invaded the Vice premises.
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Raphaël Lévesque was initially acquitted in 2020 by Judge Roy of all the offenses brought against him. However, the Court of Appeal found him guilty two years later.
Lévesque, 40, is the former leader of the Atalante identity group. In 2018, unhappy with the coverage of his group by a Vice Quebec journalist, he used a subterfuge to have the media door opened with braggarts.
The group then caused a disturbance, throwing among other things papers that they had brought, and then left the scene.
The Court of Appeal ordered a conditional judgment on the charge of mischief, but sent the case back to Judge Roy so that Raphaël Lévesque obtains his sentence on the charge of break and enter.
The judge at the Court of Quebec then issued a conditional discharge on this count as well.
Stay requested
The Crown hoped to obtain a suspended sentence, which would have left a mark on Lévesque’s criminal record.
According to the Crown, the judge erred in prohibiting the cross-examination of Lévesque on the content of his criminal record and that it was up to the public prosecutor to demonstrate that the measure would not harm the public interest.
The Court of Appeal finally ruled in favor of the public prosecutor in its judgment rendered Thursday morning, annulling the conditional absolution and ordering a suspension of the sentence.
According to the court, Judge Roy’s errors “undermined the adequate assessment of Lévesque’s situation” and “had an impact on the sentence.”
Joëlle Roy notably made an error by prohibiting the Crown prosecutor from questioning Raphaël Lévesque about the circumstances surrounding the commission of his criminal history.
He was convicted of nine offenses between 2002 and 2015, including 12 months in prison.
Furthermore, Judge Roy erred when she accepted that Lévesque had “probably demonstrated the particularly harmful consequences of a conviction in his case,” ruled judges Martin Vauclair, Benoît Moore and Éric Hardy of the Court of Appeal.
“Given the fact that Lévesque already holds this job while having a long and serious criminal record, this reflects, at best, a hypothetical consequence on his employment,” they noted.
Remember that judge Joëlle Roy is on sick leave following a column published in October in The Press who castigated her. It was indicated in particular that she “subscribed to the remonstrances of the Court of Appeal”.