Exodus of judicial personnel | Chief justices have been alerting Quebec for a year and a half

Alerted by the “urgency” of the staff shortage, the chief justices of three courts exceptionally called on the Legault government last year to demand “without delay” higher salaries for their assistants, learned The Press. A year later, nothing has changed, and the bloodletting continues in the courthouses.

Louis-Samuel Perron
The Press

Forty clerks slammed the door last year, followed by at least a dozen others since the start of the year in Montreal, according to our information. Without specifying the number of departures, the Ministry of Justice agrees that it lacks about “50 employees”. An exodus with obvious consequences.

Thus, hardly a day goes by at the Montreal courthouse without a trial, a preliminary inquiry or a sentence being delayed, or even postponed, due to the shortage of judicial personnel. A perilous situation in the context of the Jordan judgment, which dictates strict ceilings for delays in criminal matters.

Despite their crucial role in the judicial system, court clerks barely earn $35,000 to $45,000, while their municipal court colleagues earn $20,000 more. An experienced clerk can earn almost double in some private practices.

“We have been denouncing for a very long time that there will be a crisis if we do not adjust wages and conditions. The government has ignored us all the time. We find ourselves in a situation where we are in crisis, ”says Christian Daigle, general president of the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ), which represents hundreds of employees in the justice sector, including the collective agreement expired two years ago.

But the union is not alone in this battle. For a year and a half, the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, has been denouncing the situation to the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette. In November 2020, she told him of her “concern” about the “continuing” challenges in hiring judicial assistants, she wrote in a March 28 letter to the assistants.

In his three-page missive obtained by The Press, the Chief Justice describes in detail all of her efforts with the Quebec government to ensure that judicial assistants obtain better salaries. These earn less than $50,000. She describes the situation as “difficult” and “untenable”.

His efforts even culminated in an extremely rare alliance between the chief justices of the Court of Quebec, the Superior Court and the Court of Appeal to challenge Quebec in the spring of 2021. However, in December 2021, the chief justices learned that the new salary conditions for judicial assistants would only be known when the next collective agreement is signed.

But the negotiations are “at a standstill”, laments the president of the SFPQ.

“The Treasury Board is turning a deaf ear. It’s not just the union that is crying, “insists the union leader, who denounces the” lack of vision of the CAQ government “.

Difficult retention

Faced with the “disappointment” of the chief justices, the deputy ministers “reiterated their desire” to quickly carry out work to define the needs of the judiciary, a process which was to end on May 20, according to the letter. In recent weeks, judges and representatives of the Ministry of Justice have therefore participated in “workshops” to analyze the possibility of reclassifying these jobs, the letter indicates.

According to the president of the SFPQ, salaries are so uncompetitive at the moment, given the “heaviness of the task”, that the Ministry can no longer retain new recruits. “There is not a new person who arrives who wants to stay in office”, sums up Christian Daigle.

To meet the Jordan deadlines, explains Mr. Daigle, court personnel are being redirected to criminal cases to the detriment of civil cases, which are already overwhelmed by long delays. “We are sacrificing civil files. The minister is very aware of what is happening,” laments the union leader.

Minister Jolin-Barrette’s office maintains that it is “wrong” to say that “nothing has been done” on this issue, while the Department of Justice is working “continuously” to recruit and retain the court staff. Since taking office, the minister has also worked “tirelessly” to improve access to justice, we add.

“As for all of Quebec, the justice system is not spared by the labor shortage. This is a problem that goes back several years. We are very sensitive to these issues,” commented the Minister’s press attaché, Élisabeth Gosselin.

With the collaboration of Daniel Renaud, The Press