Judge Dennis Galiatsatos of the Court of Quebec persists and signs: despite the provincial government’s attempt to prevent him from rendering judgment, he went ahead and declared an article of Bill 96 inoperative in criminal matters. The magistrate here attacked this article of the Charter of the French language (commonly known as Law 101) which will soon require the immediate translation of certain judgments rendered in English.
In short, he indicates that the CAQ government meddled in things that did not concern it: here, Quebec interfered in criminal procedures which, according to him, are the responsibility of the federal government.
Bill 96, which became the Act respecting the common language of Quebec, French, will impose from 1er June the translation “immediately and without delay” of certain judgments rendered in English. In short, they must be translated into French before being filed.
Judge Galiatsatos attacked this new obligation — in criminal matters only — arguing that English-speaking defendants would have to wait longer than French-speaking defendants before knowing whether they were found guilty or not guilty.
The problem is that no one asked him to decide whether this immediate translation obligation is valid or not: he decided to take on this task himself.
The magistrate raised this debate in the criminal case of Christine Pryde, accused of dangerous driving and criminal negligence causing the death of a cyclist in 2021. She chose to have a trial in English, a right conferred on her by the Canadian Constitution. Except that Ms Pryde did not raise the invalidity of the obligation of immediate translation. Neither does the Crown.
Judge Galiatsatos recently handed down a judgment which decided his right to decide this case.
Shortly after, the Quebec government tried to prevent him from rendering judgment, by filing a legal action for this purpose before the Superior Court. On Friday, the Court defeated that effort and Judge Galiatsatos immediately issued his ruling.
In it, we can read that article 10 of the Charter of the French language is ineffective in criminal matters, he says, because the words “immediately and without delay” are incompatible with criminal procedures, which are of federal jurisdiction under the Canadian Constitution.