Lawyers, including those from several media, struggled Monday morning to convince the Court of Appeal to lift – in part – the veil on what has been called the “secret trial” in Quebec.
They are not alone in their quest: the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, and the Attorney General of Quebec are also asking that more information be made public.
The existence of this phantom trial was revealed in March, by a judgment of the Court of Appeal, reported in The Press. The Court of Appeal had issued a stay of proceedings in a case involving a police informer who, for some unknown reason, found himself charged with a crime.
The Court was shocked that this trial was held in the greatest of secrecy, without a court number and without bearing the name of the judge or the lawyers who argued the case. We don’t even know the judicial district where the case took place. Without this judgment of the highest court in Quebec, we would not even have known that he had indeed held.
The media does not ask for the name of the informant to be revealed, nor for details allowing him to be identified. But they demand more transparency since justice must be done publicly.
In the days following the revelations of The Pressthe Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette, rose up and filed a request to the Court for more transparency.
The Bar was outraged, as was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner.
” An aberration “
On Monday, several lawyers made their case for the Court of Appeal to make more information public.
Because keeping it all secret is not likely to promote public confidence in the justice system, Ms.e Christian Leblanc, noting that he had never seen such a situation during his career.
“A secret trial is an aberration,” he said, using this word used by the Court of Appeal in its own judgment in March. He also spoke of “exaggeration”, because even the judicial district is kept secret.
He asked the Court to reconsider its decision, since revealing the name of the judge and the lawyers involved will not reveal the name of the police informer.
Counsel for the Attorney General of Quebec urged the Court of Appeal to disclose sufficient details for the Court of First Instance to “build up a record”. People were shocked, he said.
The rest of the hearing in the Court of Appeal took place behind closed doors on Monday noon, ie without the presence of journalists. The Court then took the case under advisement and its decision will be rendered at a later date.