This is unprecedented in the judiciary: 15 new judges were appointed Wednesday to the Court of Quebec, the result of an agreement between the Legault government and the Court of Quebec. A breath of fresh air for overloaded courts struggling to meet deadlines Jordan.
“The appointment of these 15 new judges represents a first step in rectifying the situation of judicial delays in criminal matters,” welcomed the Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette in a press release.
These appointments result in particular from the agreement concluded in April 2023 between Minister Jolin-Barette and the then chief justice, Lucie Rondeau, who has since completed her mandate. This “compromise” made it possible to put an end to a nagging conflict between the Court of Quebec and the government concerning the judges’ work schedule. They have been sitting 104 days per year since September 2022, compared to 139 days per year previously following the Rondeau reform.
In exchange for a commitment from the Court of Quebec to respect certain targets and, above all, to have the judges of the Criminal and Penal Chamber sit more often, Quebec undertook to create 14 new positions in the judiciary.
Several well-known Crown prosecutors at the Montreal courthouse rose to the bench, including Nadia Bérubé, Bruno Ménard, Éric de Champlain and Diane Mulinda-Uwase. Criminal lawyers Lucie Joncas and Mairi Springate are also named.
The other new judges are Betty Laurent, Catherine-Valérie Levasseur, Isabelle Michaud, Thi Trang Dai Nguyen, Julie Roy, Jean-Guillaume Blanchette, Alex Dalpé, Tristan Desjardins and Alexandre Tardif.