After having turned to the courts, the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, says he is ready to attempt “conciliation” in order to settle the dispute between him and the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau.
The Bâtonniere of Quebec, Catherine Claveau, made this “conciliation” proposal to the two parties engaged in a showdown over the presence in the courtroom of the 160 magistrates of the Criminal Division of the Court of Quebec for a year, that is the Legault government on the one hand; Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau on the other hand.
On Thursday, Minister Jolin-Barrette, who is not used to the idea that judges sit every other day rather than two days out of three, said he was “happy” to see the Barreau du Québec “offer [sa] collaboration” to try to resolve the impasse between the management of the Court of Quebec and him. The elected CAQ claimed to be “open to all solutions” – except that of appointing 41 additional judges as requested by Chief Justice Rondeau.
That said, Mr. Jolin-Barrette could not help repeating to the press that, in his view, the “unilateral decision of the Court of Quebec [est] completely unacceptable, then […] penalizes all Quebec citizens” insofar as, if nothing is done, the delays for criminal cases before the Court of Quebec will lengthen considerably. “I am not dogmatic, but not at all. The important thing for me is to resolve the situation, to reduce the delays as much as possible and, above all, that the decision of the Court of Quebec does not result in a stay of proceedings that there are no people victims who see their aggressor released without trial because of a decision by the Chief Justice,” said the Minister during a press scrum on Parliament Hill.
Furthermore, Mr. Jolin-Barrette underlined that “timely justice” constitutes — like the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers — “one of the important pillars of our democracy”. “And, I won’t compromise on that. But, don’t get me wrong, I deplore and denounce the decision and the lack of openness of the Court of Quebec to find a compromise”, he said, before adding: “But a blow that we said that, I am open to all solutions”, including conciliation.
Chief Judge Lucie Rondeau for her part refused to comment on the offer of the president of Quebec, Catherine Claveau.
With Francois Carabin