In his office, one immediately noticed the big photo: the close-up of two hands tying a hockey skate.
It was less a tribute to the sport he loved so passionately than a kind of motto: you come here to work hard – but with a smile.
Pierre A. Michaud, one of the most outstanding figures of justice in Quebec at the end of the 20th centurye century, died on Friday. He was 86 years old.
Lawyer, then judge and associate chief justice of the Superior Court, he was appointed in 1994 chief judge of the Court of Appeal, the highest court in Quebec.
Obsessed with access to justice, he was not content to hammer home in a series of speeches and interviews the need to reform and simplify this too expensive public service. Something almost unprecedented for a magistrate, he himself launched several reforms.
“We have a great Code of Procedure, but it’s made for a gourmet meal, when most people only need a quick meal,” he used to say.
He had more or less summoned the Minister of Justice at the time, Paul Bégin, who shared his views, to shake the chips out of the system.
He also forced the implementation of a new and unique mediation system at the Court of Appeal, designed by Judge Louise Otis.
It was my idea, but without him, it would never have happened. There was a vote among the judges and the result was 50-50. Many were skeptical, or thought the judges would lose their authority. It was he who decided. He said, “It doesn’t make sense for people to burn their houses down in a divorce.”
Louise Otis, President of the Administrative Tribunal of the OECD and of the Appeals Tribunal of the OIF
The model has made offspring, has established itself in all courts, and even internationally. Just recently, the French Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, praised mediation in Quebec justice.
There would be a lot to draw from his old speeches to put the Quebec justice system back on track today, several parts of which are stuck in the deadlines. Doubtless no one before or after Pierre Michaud assumed with such enthusiasm the honorary title of “Chief Justice of Quebec”. If it was necessary to defend the work of the judges, he was a team player and stepped up. But if he had to kick some ass, he didn’t mind.
A partner from the time he was a lawyer at Desjardins Ducharme told me one day that Pierre Michaud had called the head of an insurance company, a very important client of the firm. “The company wanted us to do something that was unethical. He had taken the 600 company files and told her to go to another office. »
The thing was amazing 50 years ago in a large office, it is unimaginable today.
Louise Otis, constantly called abroad to settle disputes through mediation, met her old accomplice recently with other retired judges. Pierre Michaud had just lost his wife, Louise Painchaud, to COVID-19.
“He told us: ‘You know, basically, we’re here for one thing: to make other people happy.’ »
Pierre Michaud is survived by his two sons, Jacques and Jean-François.