Court of Quebec | The chief justice sued by another judge

Unusual situation, a judge has just filed a lawsuit for psychological harassment against the new chief judge of the Court of Quebec, from whom she is claiming $434,000 in damages, we have learned The Press. The affair goes beyond the personal conflict, it is also political. The two protagonists belong to opposing camps in the context of the dispute which pitted the former management of the Court against Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette.

Revenge, humiliation, rumors, shenanigans, toxic climate: the complainant paints a dark portrait of the management of the court, which hears the largest volume of legal cases in Quebec.

It was Judge Martine L. Tremblay who filed the suit against Chief Justice Henri Richard last Wednesday, addressing the Superior Court. The day before, she had resigned from her position as associate chief judge of the Court of Quebec, after taking sick leave. She plans to return to presiding over courtroom trials. At this stage, none of his allegations against the Chief Justice have been tested in court.

A conflict that leaves its mark

Martine L. Tremblay was appointed associate chief judge for the civil division in November 2019. Her mandate was to end in November 2026.

She was an ally of former Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau, who headed the court’s management team between 2016 and 2023, and who led a battle against the CAQ government starting in 2021 .

Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau had clashed with the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, first over the bilingualism of judges, which the government refused to impose but which the Court deemed necessary for certain positions.

A new conflict then broke out over the judges’ schedules. M^me Rondeau had decided to reduce the number of hearing days, due to the heavy workload of the magistrates. The minister had launched a legal challenge to cancel the reorganization of schedules.

At the time, not all judges agreed with the chief justice’s approach. As of 2021, Judge Henri Richard resigned from his position as associate chief judge for this reason. In 2022, another magistrate, Judge Serge Champoux, left his position as president of the Conference of Judges of the Court of Quebec to protest against the idea of ​​reducing hearing days.

Change of guard

In October 2023, the term of Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau ended and Henri Richard was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec.

Mr. Richard quickly made peace with the Quebec government. An agreement has put an end to the legal challenge relating to the bilingualism of judges. Taking advantage of the end of several mandates of members of the management team, he formed a new team which broke with the policy of its predecessor.

The only member of the former chief justice’s team to remain in office was Martine L. Tremblay. The latter claims in her lawsuit that her relations with Judge Henri Richard had started to deteriorate in 2018, when he had made “such harsh and nasty comments about her that the situation seemed unreal”. But in the new political context of 2023, the situation has become much worse, she says.

M^me Tremblay wanted to continue the fight against certain provisions adopted by the government. As she also sat on the Judicial Council, she supported the organization’s approach to pursuing its legal challenge. According to her, judge Henri Richard saw the thing as an “affront to his authority” for which he wanted to take “revenge”.

The new chief judge would have adopted “unjust and vindictive behavior” towards the only remaining member of the former management team, a team towards which he felt “angry” and “contempt”, claims the lawsuit filed in Court superior.

Martine L. Tremblay also claims that in the fall, a false rumor about her upcoming resignation began to circulate within the judiciary, even though she had no intention of leaving. The new chief justice also reportedly directly asked him to resign during a meeting in Orford.

M^me Tremblay claims that Henri Richard contacted judges in several regions to complain about her and portray her in negative terms calling her aggressive and disrespectful. He also allegedly told M^me Tremblay that she was a toxic person, according to the prosecution.

The motion filed in Superior Court also claims that the new chief judge stopped inviting her to meetings and failed to mention her when he listed the members of the management team in public.

“The behavior of the defendant towards the plaintiff constitutes nothing more and nothing less than psychological harassment,” asserts the lawsuit, which also mentions significant consequences on the physical and psychological health of Judge Tremblay. She says she had to resign due to a “toxic” climate that had become “unbearable”.

The work of the Court is not affected

The magistrate asks the Superior Court to force Mr. Richard to pay her $434,000 to compensate for the salary bonus and the cell phone plan that she lost by returning to sit in the courtroom at $310,000 per year. His claim also includes an amount for “exemplary” damages. The judge is represented by the Cain Lamarre firm.

In an email to The Press, Chief Justice Henri Richard assured Friday that the functioning of the Court was not affected by this dispute. “I can assure you that, while giving this exceptional situation all the attention it deserves, my team and I are keeping the focus on all the priority cases of the Court of Quebec,” he wrote.

“In this context, I cannot comment further,” added the magistrate.

The Justice Minister’s office said it would not comment.