Interview with the Chief Justice of the Superior Court | “Everything holds together with duct tape”

“We have the intimate feeling that everything is held together with duct tape. It takes at least one miracle a day to work. This is the implacable diagnosis of the judicial system made by Marie-Anne Paquette, new Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Quebec, in her first major interview. While trials are regularly postponed for lack of judges, Ottawa is slow to fill the 12 vacant positions and to create the ten new positions requested by the chief judge.

His huge office sits atop the Montreal courthouse. The view of the Old Port is breathtaking. The chief justice immediately apologizes for her always empty shelves, where she proudly displays the portraits of her three daughters. It is that the new boss of the Superior Court had other priorities since taking office last June: modernizing justice and the judiciary. A titanic challenge do not frighten this woman brought up on a farm, and whom nothing destined for the law.

The Chief Justice paints a dark but lucid portrait of our current judicial system, which holds together thanks to daily “miracles” and where “futurology” reigns in the absence of reliable data. “We want to improve deadlines, but we have to do things blindly. We are so lacking in data on judicial activity! exasperated the chief judge.

But above all, it describes a system that does not respect its promises to the population. Last June, one out of four civil trials had to be postponed for “encumbering” the Superior Court, because several trials were scheduled at the same time.

“It’s dramatic,” said the chief judge, showing empathy towards these citizens who “didn’t sleep all night” and who “invested a crazy amount of time” in their case. “We let them down,” she laments. The congestion rate then fell to 7%, then to 4.7% during the autumn. But for the Chief Justice, this is not an “improvement”: the only “acceptable” rate is 0%.

“We can’t do that to the people! she exclaims.

The “direct” cause is Ottawa’s delay in filling the 12 vacant Superior Court judge positions, explains Marie-Anne Paquette. As a diplomat, she refrains from criticizing Ottawa and ensures that the federal government is working hard to “correct” the situation.

In addition to the 12 vacant positions, the Chief Justice is asking the Trudeau government to create 9 new positions to “serve the population well”. A request already approved “fully” by Quebec, she rejoices. The ball is now in Ottawa’s court.

“Break of service”

With a deficit of 21 judges, the impacts are real for the public. In a district on the outskirts of Montreal, no judge was able to free himself to sit the only two days scheduled for the month, illustrates Marie-Anne Paquette.

The Superior Court noted no less than 29 “breaks in service” for lack of a judge last September and October, and 13 due to a lack of personnel or an incomplete file. The situation is certainly worse since these data are “imperfect”, nuances the chief justice.

“It doesn’t have to be! There is no acceptable rate of service breakdown,” she insists, pointing to the non-competitive salaries of registry and judicial support employees. Judges’ assistants thus leave the Superior Court to work in the municipal court or in the private sector. Result: one third of magistrates do not have the required assistance.

A problem that weighs heavily on the shoulders of judges, forced to devote themselves to these “extremely important” administrative tasks. “I must tell you that this overload, caused by the shortage of manpower, sometimes competes with the serenity that is necessary for the exercise of our functions,” admits the Chief Justice.

As with respect to Ottawa, the chief justice refuses to blame Quebec for this crisis. She assures us that the Treasury Board is making “a lot of” efforts to correct the situation.

From Farm to Palace

The Chief Justice has an extraordinary background, having grown up on a dairy farm in Mirabel. “I don’t come from an academic background, but from an agricultural background. There is not much that destined me for law, ”she confides. His parents were expropriated when the airport was built. An upheaval that marked her for life.

“It called in me a desire to know these rules. Should we always accept things as they are? I think that’s what brought me to law, ”opens Marie-Anne Paquette. In an environment where one is often a lawyer from father to son, the daughter of farmers quickly integrated the idea that she would have “no second chance”, she continues.

Appointed judge in 2010, then coordinating judge, she reached the prestigious post of Chief Justice of the Superior Court in June 2022. Nevertheless, there is no question of resting on her laurels.

Marie-Anne Paquette talks with determination about her hobbyhorse: the digital record, the next revolution in the legal system.

According to her, the digital file will make it possible in particular to better collect data on judicial delays – and therefore to take action to reduce them.

“We can no longer continue to operate with a paper file,” insists the chief judge. Moreover, she refuses to consider the possibility that this reform led by the Quebec Department of Justice falls through. “We have no choice,” she repeats. Delivery is scheduled for 2025. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested by Quebec in the ambitious Lexius program.

Hard choices ahead

Criminal judicial delays are comparable to those of four years ago, rejoices the chief judge. A jury trial can be set within 10 to 13 months.

“There are a lot of miracles behind that, a lot of ingenuity, then a lot of duct tape,” she nuances.

However, the exploding delays in the Court of Québec, due in particular to the reform of the judges’ schedule, end up having an impact on those of the Superior Court. The files that come from the Court of Quebec are “aging”, which “reduces” its room for maneuver, argues Marie-Anne Paquette. The ceiling dictated by the Jordan judgment is 30 months in the Superior Court.

In civil cases, the time limit for setting a trial is stable at one year and three months. However, a choice will have to be made if new judges are not appointed, warns the boss of the Superior Court. “Our deadlines will lengthen, but at least we will be sure that the day when people will show up, we will be able to serve them. With the shortage of staff, we face this dilemma, ”she says.

The Court of Appeal revealed last March the existence of a “secret trial” which probably took place in the Court of Quebec against a police informant. A case that has sown consternation in the political and judicial class.

Could such a “secret trial” take place in his own court? Chief Justice Paquette responds firmly: “What I can tell you is that there is none at the Superior Court. »