While the new chief justice of the Superior Court is alarmed by the disturbing “breakage of service” in the courthouses, her colleague from the Court of Quebec is more concerned about the lack of decorum in the courtroom and the treatment “acerbic” and “critical” media of recent decisions in sexual matters.
Posted at 2:40 p.m.
For the first time since 2019, the chief justices of the four courts addressed the hundreds of judges and lawyers in person Thursday morning during the back-to-court rally at the Montreal courthouse. Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette also spoke. These speeches allow Chief Justices to present the priorities of their mandate.
In her ten-minute speech, Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec Lucie Rondeau had only two “concerns” to share: “the erosion of decorum during hearings” and the work of the media. A major contrast with his colleagues who preferred to evoke the online “attacks” against judges, the lack of funding for the judicial system and the harmful consequences of the shortage of manpower.
Chief Justice Rondeau thus protested the “inadmissible remarks” made in the media in the context of “recent decisions at the sentencing stage for offenses committed in a sexual or conjugal context”. A barely veiled allusion to the case of Simon Houle, this engineer who took advantage of the leniency of the judge in a case of sexual assault. This judgment caused an uproar last summer.
“We cannot say that the courts make decisions according to the popular or political will,” argued Lucie Rondeau. The Chief Justice then went on to say that she hoped that the “critical media treatment of judicial decisions does not lead any of the judges to favor the decision least likely to arouse controversy over the one that is essential”.
A few minutes earlier, the new Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec, Marie-Anne Paquette, for her part, wished to thank the journalists “for their work in a context where the traditional media, such as the courts, are more often challenged “.
Chief Justice Rondeau briefly mentioned her standoff with Minister Jolin-Barrette over the recent reduction in the duties of judges of the Court of Québec; these will be called upon to sit less often. “I allow myself to reiterate my commitment to defend the fundamental principles for the benefit of litigants, namely the institutional judicial independence of the courts,” she argued.
In his speech, interrupted by striking legal aid lawyers, the Quebec Minister of Justice argued that a “significant catch-up” was needed in terms of court delays. “We must all redouble our efforts in this direction,” declared Simon Jolin-Barrette.
The labor shortage generates “real breakdowns in services”
Appointed this year by the Trudeau government, the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, Marie-Anne Paquette, focused on the problems of labor shortages in courthouses. These lead to “delays, delays, and unfortunate situations”, she denounced.
The consequences are “real” and “significantly negative” for citizens, insisted Chief Justice Paquette. Combined with the “unusual delays in replacing vacant judges’ positions”, the labor shortage “is now generating real service disruptions”.
“We even asked to document this phenomenon for 2022, that says it all. This new reality, that of service failures, has no place in the judicial system of our legal society. It too must become a bad memory,” maintained Chief Justice Paquette.
The Chief Justice of the Superior Court also deplored a recent phenomenon on social networks, namely personal attacks against judges. “Is this populism? Is it bullying? No matter. Let me emphasize this: every unwarranted accusation aimed at discrediting a judge […] fundamentally harms our legal society,” she argued.
In her speech, the Chief Justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal, Manon Savard, stressed the importance of allocating adequate financial resources to the judicial system, in particular to complete its modernization.
“It belongs to all of us […] to see that Justice gets the share of funding it deserves in a state of law if we want to maintain quality justice,” she said.
Federal Court Chief Justice Paul Crompton commended Chief Justice Savard for her intervention, calling the need for adequate funding “essential”. He then pleaded for the establishment of a “mechanism” to ensure the permanent funding of the judicial system so that a “government of the future” cannot “backtrack”.