The Barreau du Québec opposes the Legault government’s reform which would reduce the possibility of requiring bilingualism among judges and which would prohibit the Chief Justice of the Court of Québec from requesting the appointment of bilingual judges to meet the needs of his court.
Posted at 12:59 p.m.
The professional order of lawyers believes that the new restrictions proposed on the appointment of bilingual judges as part of the reform of Bill 101 could “have a real impact on institutional judicial independence”, “unduly influence [la juge en chef de la Cour du Québec] in the management of his court” and risk “undermining the independence of the selection process” of judges, argues the president of Quebec, Catherine Claveau, in a letter sent Monday to the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette .
The Bar believes that these are “concerning issues that could be the subject of legal challenges” and that the objectives of the Bill 101 reform are “a priori far removed from the process of selecting judges”.
Minister Jolin-Barrette added these amendments on the selection of judges to Bill 96 (the reform of Bill 101) last month, after his refusal to require bilingualism for positions as judges of the Court of Quebec in Longueuil and Saint-Jérôme (a request by Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau) was declared illegal by the Superior Court.
For several months, a standoff over the bilingualism of certain judicial positions has pitted the Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette against the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec Lucie Rondeau. It is a standoff of rare intensity for the nature of their functions.
Chief Justice Rondeau asks to require bilingualism for judicial positions in Longueuil and Saint-Jérôme, in particular because criminal defendants have the constitutional right to have a trial in the language of their choice. Minister Jolin-Barrette refused this request, and Chief Justice Rondeau took their dispute to the Superior Court. She concluded that the regulations on the appointment of judges do not, in their current form, allow the Minister of Justice to oppose in a discretionary manner such a request by the Chief Justice.
The Legault government did not appeal the judgment of the Superior Court, but rather chose to modify the regulations in question through Bill 96 on the reform of Bill 101. “We therefore question the merits of this modification and consider that it should be reviewed. It should be remembered that it was also adopted as part of the detailed study of Bill 96, the subject of which is linguistic issues, a priori far removed from the process of selecting judges, “writes the Bâtonnière du Québec Ms.and Catherine Claveau.
Three amendments to Bill 96 are of concern to the Barreau du Québec:
- The Minister of Justice would no longer be obliged to take into consideration the needs expressed by the Chief Justice of the Court of Québec in order to require bilingualism or not in the competitions for judges (the current regulations oblige him to do so).
- The new process would “prevent” the Court of Quebec from demonstrating its needs in terms of the bilingualism of its judges. Of course, the bill provides that the Minister of Justice must take into account the number of criminal hearings held in English. But any issue of bilingualism is ruled out in civil matters, for example in youth protection. The Barreau du Québec believes that “identifying the language needs of Quebec courts is an administrative decision” that should involve the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec.
- The person responsible for selecting candidates for the position of judge would be appointed solely by the government, without consultation with the Chief Justice of the Court of Québec and the Barreau du Québec, as is currently the case. This is a “legacy” of the Bastarache commission aimed at depoliticizing the process of selecting judges, recalls the Bar.
The Barreau du Québec supports “any modernization of the judicial selection process”, provided that it is the subject of public consultations, that it respects the principle of depoliticizing the selection process (an objective of the Bastarache commission) and that the proposed amendments facilitate access to the courts.
Under the Constitution, the Government of Quebec appoints the judges of the Court of Quebec and the Quebec administrative tribunals, while the federal government appoints the judges of the Superior Court and the Court of Appeal of Quebec.