The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, is tightening the screw on the Conseil de la magistrature (CMQ). He tabled a bill on Tuesday that aims to subject the expenses of the organization – which oversees the work of about 450 judges – to a vote of the National Assembly.
The bill, which fits on a single page, was introduced days after it was revealed that the CMQ exceeded its annual budget by more than 40%, in particular to challenge new provisions of the Language Charter French.
Uncomfortable to see the CMQ draw “from the consolidated revenue fund”, Minister Jolin-Barrette therefore proposed that the sums required for the exercise of the CMQ’s functions be taken “from the appropriations voted annually for this purpose by the National Assembly.
In other words: the Minister wishes to review the mode of financing of the CMQ, as well as the supervision of its expenses.
Public funds for bilingualism
At the end of April, the Ministry of Justice questioned the CMQ about the overrun of its budget for the year 2022-2023. The organization spent nearly $4.6 million, beyond its annual budget of $3.2 million.
The largest cost overrun is due to the battle over the bilingualism of judges. The CMQ thus spent nearly $1.1 million to assert its right to require judges to master English, for reasons of court efficiency.
However, in the opinion of Minister Jolin-Barrette, “the fact that more than 1.1 million dollars were taken from taxpayers’ pockets to challenge a law duly adopted by their elected representatives in the National Assembly does not is not acceptable”. In a statement sent to the Duty 1er May, he added that “this is not part of the mandate of the Judicial Council”.
The CMQ considers that this type of expenditure is linked to some of its responsibilities, including that of improving the administration of justice and “promoting the efficiency and standardization of procedure before the courts”.