In a press release published Thursday, the office of the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, indicates that the government has requested a referral to the Court of Appeal to rule on the decision of the Court of Quebec to reduce the presence of judges in the courtroom.
Posted at 3:21 p.m.
The latter had announced in an internal memo in January that the judges of the Criminal Chamber would sit only one working day out of two, spending the other in deliberation. Currently, these judges sit two days out of three.
The change is to take effect at the start of the school year.
“Implementation of this decision could significantly increase legal delays”, warns the office of Minister Jolin-Barrette, so that “nearly 50,000 cases would thus be at risk of exceeding the deadline set by the ‘Jordan decision’.
“This decision taken by the management of the Court of Quebec unilaterally […] deeply worries the Government of Quebec,” said Minister Jolin-Barrette, quoted in the press release. “This goes against the efforts being made by all stakeholders to make the justice system more efficient. »
Invited to react, the chief judge of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, indicated through her assistant that “no comment will be made in this regard” since the file is in the hands of the Court of Appeal.