At the end of her investigation, the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly, Ariane Mignolet, concluded that the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, did not commit any fault when he appointed his friend Charles- Olivier Gosselin as judge.
The commissioner affirms that the minister acted in accordance with the usual process of selection and appointment of judges.
“Indeed, the Minister followed the clear and explicit rules which concern his role as Minister of Justice. The Minister’s testimony also reveals that his decision to recommend the candidacy of Charles-Olivier Gosselin for the position of judge is based solely on the competence of the latter and on the personalized assessment contained in the report of the selection committee”, indicates Mr.me Mignolet.
The sun revealed last May that Minister Jolin-Barrette recommended his friend Charles-Olivier Gosselin as a judge to the Court of Quebec. The minister celebrated Mr. Gosselin’s wedding in 2015. It was Liberal MP Monsef Derraji who asked the commissioner to investigate this story.
Ariane Mignolet, however, expresses a reservation regarding the situation in which the minister found himself.
“However, although here I have concluded that the Minister did not favor the interests of Judge Gosselin in an abusive manner, he nevertheless found himself, by force of circumstances, in a delicate situation which fuels the “appearance of conflict of interest due to his significant close relationship with Judge Gosselin,” states the commissioner in her report.
She adds that we should think about a mechanism to resolve this type of situation while preserving public confidence in the processes of selection and appointment of judges.
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