In her incessant standoff with the executive branch of the state, the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, won a first round earlier this month when the Superior Court rejected the Attorney General’s request for a stay. of Quebec, which fears an undue extension of judicial delays caused by a hasty reform.
Since September, Judge Rondeau’s reform has allowed the 160 judges of the Criminal Division to sit one day out of two – the other being reserved for writing decisions – rather than two days out of three. Since these magistrates hear fewer cases (they will sit 4,617 fewer days per year, according to the evaluation of the Ministère de la Justice), the delays for criminal cases before the Court of Québec, which have already shown a worrying increase over the past three years, do not can only increase. Even the honorable magistrate acknowledges this.
For the Court to hear as many cases as before, Lucie Rondeau is asking the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, to recommend the appointment of 41 new judges, which corresponds to 25% of the staff of the Criminal Division. However, they are not there. And our justice system is already bloodless.
Not only is it a big bite to take — appointing so many judges to the Court of Quebec all at once has never been seen before — but the appointment process extends over 18 months, perhaps a little less in the best case.
Initially, a budget request from the Minister must be sent to the Treasury Board (it is all the same an expenditure of 24 million per year for these 41 judges), and a bill must be approved by the Board of ministers, then voted in the National Assembly. Then the candidate selection process can begin, whose appointments are finally approved by the Council of Ministers. But Judge Rondeau regards with contempt a process that depends not only on the executive, but on elected officials.
Until these positions are filled, the backlog of criminal cases will inevitably increase. Similarly, the risk of abandonment of the proceedings to which the Jordan judgment gives rise is increased if the delays exceed the limits of 18 or 30 months, depending on the case. According to the Department of Justice, at least 45,000 cases could end up running out of time.
Without having reached an agreement with the Minister of Justice, Justice Rondeau went ahead knowing full well that it was impossible for her to be able to count on her new judges in September.
Before Judge Pierre Nollet, of the Superior Court, the Attorney General therefore requested a stay of execution to avoid the “irreparable prejudice” caused by the increase in delays, and this, while the Court of Appeal, from which he requested a dismissal, decides on the merits of the case next year.
In her statement delivered to the Superior Court, Lucie Rondeau estimates that the delays attributable to her decision will not be felt until 2023. In his judgment, Pierre Nollet agrees that the consequences of the delays for victims of criminal acts deserve attention, but as “significant systemic delays” already exist, no irreparable harm separate from that caused by the Chief Justice’s decision can be found.
It’s as if the Ministry of Health cut a day from the surgeons’ work week, reducing the number of procedures they perform, but denying any harm because many operations are already postponed. and the waiting lists are overflowing. Extending the delays in court does not cause any prejudice since delays already exist and the origin of the inconveniences cannot be separated. Singular and absurd reasoning.
In short, in this case, it is the working conditions of judges that are being improved — and supposedly the quality of their decisions — and it is the litigants who are paying the price.
Not all judges affect the same casualness. Last May, the president of the Conference of Judges of the Court of Quebec, Serge Champoux, resigned from his position, saying he was unable to agree to voluntarily slow down his work performance without regard to the effects his action will have “on defendants, victims, communities” under the pretext of putting pressure on politics in order to make gains.
Obviously, Lucie Rondeau does not have the same scruples. For seven years and non-renewable, his mandate as Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec will end in October 2023 when the effects of his reform will be heavily felt. After me the deluge.