At the end of the line: justice for all

The documentary series At the end of rights, imagined and animated by Isabelle Marjorie Tremblay, not only reports cases and cites numbers of laws, it clearly recounts situations experienced by citizens and outlines possible remedies. The objective is clear: to equip the citizen in the face of a system whose jargon and procedures can be frightening.

Posted yesterday at 10:00 a.m.

Alexandre Vigneault

Alexandre Vigneault
The Press

Who has never answered a text message with one hand while holding the steering wheel with the other and sometimes taking their eyes off the road to better type on the keyboard of their phone? It’s not trivial, reminds the series At the end of rights : hurting someone while texting while driving is a criminal act that can land a driver with a clean record in jail.

This is what happened to the man who hit Danièle Boutet, who was on her honeymoon on a motorcycle with her husband. The consequences of the driver’s “distraction” were tragic: the mother, a runner, had to have her left leg amputated. The driver was charged – and found guilty – of criminal negligence. He was sentenced to one year in prison. A sentence deemed “exemplary”.

The tragic case of Danièle Boutet and the other stories told by Isabelle Marjorie Tremblay in At the end of rights aim to put a face to tragedies and to better explain how the justice system works and the possible remedies. The documentary series seven six episodes directed by Fanny Lefort and presented on Savoir Média explores a host of themes such as hidden vice, cyberbullying (with MNA Catherine Dorion), sexual assault, discrimination, racial profiling and identity theft.

“The basic idea was to simply talk about the law, with an accessible, human tone and to start from the stories of citizens. To find the right balance between emotions and information, ”explains the host, who is also the designer of the show. She herself, who has a background in law – without ever having practiced it – admits to being sometimes lost in the maze of justice. “So I imagine what it’s like for Mr. and Mrs. Everybody,” she says with empathy.

The interest ofAt the end of rights is due to its friendly approach – the specialists are excellent communicators, the production is relaxed – and to its accuracy: here, we do not seek pathos at all costs, rather to present sometimes complex information with sensitivity. “The majority of these stories are over,” explains Isabelle Marjorie Tremblay, “so people are able to talk about them with a certain distance. »

In terms of production, I think it was important to go human, for someone to tell us about their experience in the maze of justice, but also to have a dialogue with a lawyer who will specify concepts of law, to popularize them from the history of the citizen. It wouldn’t have worked if we had gone too far into pathos.

Isabelle Marjorie Tremblay

At the end of rights energizes each episode with the addition of informative capsules (on the rules to be respected by bike, for example) and portraits of lawyers. The host wanted to present lawyers “who have their hearts on their sleeves and who want to change things”. “I wanted to show these people, she insists, the human face of lawyers who sometimes have a bad reputation. Between the lines, the series also questions the meaning of justice, what it is to obtain justice, or not, depending on the people encountered.

Isabelle Marjorie Tremblay is aware of going back to basics, but feels that it is necessary to repeat things if we want to do useful work. “No one is safe from a bad surprise and no one wants to end up in court”, judges the host, who wishes to participate in the accessibility of justice with this program and who deplores that the resources available are poorly known. “This is one of the other objectives I had with this series: to decompartmentalize the world of law and society in general, to establish a dialogue, she specifies, so that everything is more fluid. »

On Savoir Média, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. The series is also available online on the channel’s website.


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