Judge Serge Champoux expresses his dissidence in the face of the decision – and the methods – of the chief judge of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, who wishes to have his magistrates sit every other day: he resigned on Wednesday from the presidency of the Conference of Judges of the Court of Quebec (CJCQ), learned The duty.
“That I voluntarily slow down my work performance knowing the effects that my action will have on the accused, victims, communities does not seem fair to me and I am unable to accept it”, wrote Judge Champoux in an email. sent on May 20 to all the judges and deputy judges of the Court of Québec. The duty got the post, which spans eight pages.
Asked for an interview, Judge Champoux preferred to rely on his duty of reserve on Wednesday. “Under the circumstances, I will make no further comment,” he said.
In the email he sent to his colleagues, the magistrate explains his dissatisfaction. He denounces the negotiation methods of the Court of Quebec. “The argument heard is this: if we wait until the resources are there, the government will never move,” he wrote. ” I disagree. »
He indicates, later in his message: “I would never have proposed to slow down our work performance, for example to put pressure on politics and thus hope to make gains”, he underlines.
At the start of the year, the Court of Quebec notified the Department of Justice that it wanted the judges of its Criminal Division to sit one working day out of two — rather than two days out of three — as of September. To mitigate the judicial delays that the change could cause, the chief judge is asking Quebec to appoint 41 judges, a process that requires, in particular, legislative amendments and a selection process extending over several months.
May 14, The duty reported that Department of Justice estimates suggested that 50,000 criminal cases a year could exceed the 18-month Jordan timeline — and eventually be subject to a stay application — if judges of the Court of Quebec reduced their time on the bench.
Internal pressures and reversals
Judge Champoux’s email refers to a meeting by videoconference convened on May 17 by the Chief Judge of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, following the publication of this article by To have to. According to the magistrate, the chief judge was then looking for “the [soutien] judges for his approach and has certainly obtained it”.
“Unanimously”, her colleagues thus offered their “unconditional and unwavering” support to the chief judge in the implementation of a new ratio of time spent on the bench, and this, “even if we know that there is no resource[s] and that there won’t be any at this time to compensate for the reduction in working days. [séances] of the criminal chamber,” wrote Judge Champoux. Courthouses, it should be remembered, are facing significant staff shortages.
The magistrate also suggests in his email that some of his colleagues have changed their minds. “Even an allegedly delinquent region has explicitly made its profession of faith […], clearly expressing having set up the ratio and intending to apply it, ”he notes. “The only diverging voice was mine in this unanimous and even reinforced concert, I would say, compared to the previous situation”, also writes the judge.
Judge Champoux’s email also leaves no doubt about the Court of Quebec’s desire to move forward with its decision to reduce the “time sat” by its judges. Among other things, he named three judges of the Court of Quebec, whom he said were “close[s] of the Chief Justice”, and which would have “confirmed that all consultations [ont] been made, [que] the case is heard and the decision rendered”. One of these judges would have “demanded” the resignation of Serge Champoux as president of the CJCQ on May 17, according to what he wrote in his email.
In a response sent to To have to On Wednesday, Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau said she was “informed” that Justice Champoux was resigning as president of the CJCQ. ” But [nous] we will not comment on this,” she said. The magistrate said she would continue her work with the Ministry of Justice and added: “we are still awaiting a meeting with the Minister of Justice, [comme] proposed by him last April”.
Judge Rondeau’s decision on the “time served” by the judges worries the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, the Legal Services Commission and, first and foremost, the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette. The elected official recently urged the magistrate to “review her decision”, not without specifying that the Court of Quebec had taken it “without consulting the justice partners”.
Retroactive justification?
The response sent by Judge Rondeau, like the email from Judge Champoux, refers to a report signed by Maurice Galarneau, deputy judge of the Court of Quebec. The report, entitled “Evolution of the function of judge in the Criminal and Penal Division of the Court of Québec”, describes the many changes — since the adoption in 1982 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — which have modified the nature and workload of judges.
He concludes that “the current organization of work [des juges] established four decades ago is outdated” and needs to be reviewed. “A work organization based on an equivalent time of judicial summons and personal work under advisement is necessary to correct [les] major difficulties” noted in the document, it is also written there.
In his e-mail, Judge Champoux is surprised to have heard Judge Rondeau justify her request concerning the ratio of “time sat” by the judges by invoking this ratio. “The Galarneau report is dated February 2022, namely well after the request for 41 positions to the minister”, he underlines. In his opinion, the document, although “flawless”, does not allow the reader “to draw the conclusions that the ratio of time seated/time deliberated should be modified”.
The magistrate then works to dismantle certain arguments used in the report. Finally, he is concerned that a second document, which reported on steps aimed at “examining the judges’ workload”, was never made public or sent to the CJCQ, which requested it “from multiple occasions and never had it”.