Accused of stealing food from Dollarama, a homeless man who has been languishing in detention for several days seems to be the collateral victim of a conflict that has continued for months between Laval legal aid lawyers and municipal prosecutors.
The man risks spending more time in prison than his crime is worth.
According to our information, the story of this vulnerable man outraged several actors in the judicial system, especially since the accused, who speaks neither French nor English, seemed confused at the time of his appearances in court.
The magistrate responsible for hearing the case also seemed outraged by insisting that the non-cooperation of legal aid be recorded in the Court file.
Judge Jonathan Meunier also recalled that legal aid choices should not influence the services to which citizens are entitled, especially in matters of health.
The homeless man is suspected of having committed two food thefts last September from two Dollarama stores in Laval. The first flight was $5 and the second was $54.
The man, who appears to only understand Tamil – a language spoken in Sri Lanka and India, in particular – was arrested at the time of the second theft.
The police then gave him a summons to appear in court for January 18. Did he understand what that entailed? Nothing is less sure. One thing is certain: the homeless man did not appear in court that day and an arrest warrant was issued against him.
Arrested on February 16, the homeless man has been detained since. At the time of his release hearing on February 20, the homeless man did not have a lawyer. An interpreter who translated from French to Tamil was on site.
After the prosecution opposed his release, Judge Meunier asked him a few questions, including where he lived.
An emergency homeless shelter was the address on his file when he was fined for loitering in a public place last year, according to our pocketbook research.
The judge immediately had reason to suspect that the accused was unfit to stand trial. In addition to requiring an assessment of his fitness to stand trial, the magistrate then asked, as the homeless man was not represented by a lawyer, that one be appointed to him.
Collateral victim of a conflict
This is where the conflict between Laval legal aid lawyers and municipal prosecutors appears implicitly.
The magistrate made a request to the Legal Services Commission – the official name for legal aid.
However, the lawyers from the Laval legal aid office no longer offer representation services at the Laval municipal court, “for an indefinite period,” replied a director of the Commission, Ms.e Élise Gravel, again according to our information.
A lawyer from Montreal was finally appointed, but this led to additional delays. The accused will remain detained at least until February 27; date of his next court appearance. He will then have been in preventive detention for 11 days for a minor crime, theft of food.
Called to react, a Commission lawyer, Ms.e Nadine Koussa, responded to The Press that “it was not due to the absence of a permanent legal aid lawyer in the municipal court that the client remained detained, but rather due to the judge’s order regarding his assessment of his ability to stand trial.”
Furthermore, “in the case that concerns us, despite the offenses which appear minor, it was the prosecutors of the City of Laval who opposed the release of the accused,” specifies M.e Koussa.
“Anomaly” become the norm
Regardless of who is responsible for the length of his detention, a homeless person languishes in a cell while accused of a minor offense, notes Guillaume Ouellet, researcher at the Montreal Research Center on Social Inequalities, discrimination and alternative citizenship practices (CREMIS).
In the eyes of the sociologist, this story resembles the criminalization of poverty. “One might think that this is an exception or even a complete breakdown of the system. However, in several research projects that we have carried out, we see that this type of “anomaly” in fact represents the norm,” says the man who is also an associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM).
The justice system constantly turns to correctional services to “manage” this person profile, illustrates the researcher.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Guillaume Ouellet, researcher at the Montreal Research Center on social inequalities, discrimination and alternative citizenship practices
Detention is not so much intended to dissuade the person from committing a crime again, but rather to encourage them to change sector; the “not in my backyard” syndrome.
Guillaume Ouellet, researcher at CREMIS
Seen from this angle, “detention is added to other measures such as street furniture designed so that one cannot lie down to sleep, such as municipal regulations applied exclusively to people experiencing homelessness (for example, loitering, spitting on the ground, being in possession of injection equipment) which aim to remind the people concerned that they have no place in social space,” concludes the UQAM professor.
The City of Laval also refuses to comment on the homeless man’s case. However, “the lack of coverage for accused persons eligible for legal aid is unfortunate and we are sensitive to the complications this creates,” indicated by email its public affairs advisor, Jonathan Lévesque.
For its part, the Commission says it is “confident of being able to restore relations in order to be able to resume representing litigants in the municipal court in the near future”, since a mediation process is underway, indicated its vice-president, Me Koussa.
A long conflict in the background
The conflict between legal aid lawyers at the Laval municipal court and municipal prosecutors has been going on for months. Last summer, the City of Laval asked its prosecutors to “limit verbal exchanges” with legal aid lawyers and to stick to emails, according to a municipal directive. If a discussion is absolutely necessary, “we consider it preferable that […] two prosecutors are present on both sides in order to avoid any divergence of interpretation,” reported The Press in December.
Read the article “Laval Municipal Court: Legal Aid lawyers carry out their threats”
Then, at the beginning of November, legal aid decided to withdraw from the municipal court “for an indefinite period”, claiming that the directive from the City of Laval violated the fundamental rights of its clients, since the accused represented by legal aid legal would face two lawyers, unlike the others.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Laval municipal court
In the homeless case, it is this decision that a director of legal aid, Ms.e Gravel, reiterated to the magistrate. However, questioned by The Pressher sister Me Koussa qualifies the answer given to the judge that day. Me Gravel was referring to the legal aid services offered by permanent lawyers at the municipal court and not to the services of the Legal Services Commission relating, in particular, to designations, she clarified.
During designations, which are also the responsibility of the Commission, the latter alternates mandates between legal aid lawyers and private practice lawyers who have expressed an interest in taking on this type of case. M’s responsee Gravel was intended as a “reminder” to the Commission to appoint a lawyer from private practice in this case, adds Me Koussa.
Without commenting on this specific case, the Quebec Bar reiterates its concern about the conflict. “We deplore the current situation which has prevailed for several weeks at the Laval municipal court and hope that legal aid will be available again, and quickly,” indicated its public relations advisor, Martine Meilleur, by email.
With the collaboration of Philippe Teiscera-Lessard, The Press