“Flagrant misconduct”, “obvious bias”, “reprehensible conduct”. It is with these particularly harsh terms that a judge of the Superior Court curbs a prosecutor for the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) who committed an abuse of process by harming a father seeking justice for his daughter. .
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“We are fighting against Goliaths. It’s indecent, justice like that, ” gets carried away Michel Gauvin at the end of the line. For years, the 60-year-old from the Montreal region has been fighting body and soul to obtain justice for his daughter Caroline Gauvin, who was seriously injured in a car accident involving snow removal tractors in 2013. His daughter – a miracle – was the victim of a botched police investigation in his eyes, having even been criminally charged, then acquitted.
“She had no chance of surviving. They said she would never walk, but she managed to walk,” he says.
When the DPCP refused to lay charges in 2018 against the two snowplow drivers and the five police officers who intervened on the scene, Michel Gauvin decided to file a “private complaint” against them. A tedious process that very rarely results in criminal charges.
A small fleeting victory
Judge Pierre Bélisle, of the Court of Quebec, nevertheless agreed in part with Michel Gauvin by authorizing in June 2019 charges of attempted obstruction of justice against Robert Trudeau and Robert Boudreau, the two snowplow drivers. The judge maintains that they “brazenly lied from A to Z” during the pre-investigation of several days.
A twist five months later. Mand Claude Girard, the DPCP prosecutor mandated for the pre-investigation before Judge Bélisle, files a stoppage of the judicial process for “insufficiency of evidence”, ending the criminal charges. According to Mand Girard, Michel Gauvin “wanted more or less to use the private complaint mechanism to serve the purposes of his important civil lawsuit”.
However, this decision of the DPCP was nothing less than an “abuse of process”, determined Judge Daniel Royer, of the Superior Court of Quebec, on March 15. He thus overturned the halt of the judicial process in cases of obstruction of justice and ordered the prosecution of criminal charges.
This is a “most obvious case of reprehensible conduct, which is extremely rare”, he concludes in this very harsh judgment with regard to the DPCP and Mr.and Claude Girard, Deputy Chief Prosecutor for Economic Crimes.
This experienced prosecutor was “biased” for the defendants in the private complaint, according to the judge. He thus “repeatedly and systematically exceeded the nature and scope of his role in the pre-investigation, testifying to flagrant misconduct discrediting the private complaints system,” added the judge.
Essentially, the DPCP prosecutor made every effort to attack the credibility of Michel Gauvin’s key witnesses during “long” cross-examinations, while he engaged in “accommodating” cross-examinations of the police and snow plow operators. So that the Crown prosecutor acted as a defense lawyer representing the police and the snowplow drivers, said Judge Royer.
A “favourable bias”
Additionally, M.and Girard placed himself in an “impossible situation of conflict of interest” by taking charge of the charges for which he had “discredited” his own witnesses, concluded the judge. In writing, the prosecutor also confirms having a “prejudice favorable” to tractor drivers and “unfavorable” towards the daughter of Michel Gauvin. The fact of having insisted that she testify was also “inappropriate” on the part of the prosecutor, according to the judge.
Judge Royer also questions the credibility of Mr.and Claude Girard. Two lawyers, as well as the judicial journalist Claude Poirier, declared under oath that they saw the DPCP prosecutor talking with the lawyers for the police and the drivers in January 2019 in the cafeteria of the Longueuil courthouse.
A lawyer claims to have heard Mr.and Girard reassure the other lawyers involved by “telling them that he was in charge of the pre-investigation and not to worry about it”, notes the judge. The magistrate also accepts as true the “undisputed” version of Claude Poirier.
After having solemnly declared not to have been present at the courthouse that day, Mr.and Girard testified that he was no longer sure. “It is to ignore the oath”, maintains the judge, who says he is “thoughtful” in front of the insistence of the prosecutor not to “want to be on the spot”.
“Furthermore, the way of bearing witness to [Me Girard] was not such as to enhance his credibility. The Tribunal concludes that the uncorroborated evidence adduced by [Me Girard] in his affidavit and in his testimony does not have sufficient reliability to be accepted”, ruled Judge Royer.
Despite his victory, Michel Gauvin does not mince his words against the DPCP and the judicial system. “When you left, the dice were loaded! Imagine the confidence we have in the justice system! “, he laments. This legal battle has cost him a fortune. And the civil proceedings are far from over, as he claims 3.5 million against those involved in the accident.
His lawyer, Mr.and Alexandra Longueville, believes that this judgment should encourage the DPCP to revise its rules on private complaints. For the process to be “more equitable”, it would be necessary for another prosecutor to take charge of the case if the charges are upheld.
“In light of a preliminary analysis of the judgment rendered, it raises sufficiently important questions regarding the responsibilities of the DPCP and its prosecutors within the criminal justice system for it to seriously consider challenging the decision in the Court of Justice. call from Quebec. As a result, we cannot comment further at this time,” responded M.and Audrey Roy-Cloutier, spokesperson for the DPCP.