A real disaster is looming in terms of justice in Quebec.
We have already written1but we are going to repeat it because it is too important: the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau, made an irresponsible decision by reducing the number of days her judges sat in the criminal chamber.
Result: as there are fewer sitting days and the deadlines of the Jordan judgment must be respected, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) will have to give priority to certain cases. He announced in mid-February that he will prioritize the most serious crimes like murder, sexual and domestic violence, child and elder abuse. If he has to make choices, he will not give priority to narcotics, firearms without injuries, economic crimes and misdeeds, revealed our colleagues Lila Dussault and Hugo Pilon-Larose2.
We are no longer going straight into the wall. We start hitting him. Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette and Chief Justice Rondeau each have their faults in this case. But the only person who can step on the brakes is Chief Justice Rondeau. We implore him to do so. The longer she waits, the more public confidence in the justice system is likely to decline.
The crisis is not as acute in civil justice, but there is nevertheless a serious problem of access to justice. The deadlines keep getting longer.
In the Small Claims Court – supposed to be an example of accessible justice – the wait times for a hearing are on average one year and 10 months (664 days), compared to 305 days in 2017. This is unacceptable.
With his Bill 8, which was the subject of consultations in mid-February, Minister Jolin-Barrette is taking the bull by the horns. Cheer ! There are many interesting proposals for access to justice in this bill.
First, small claims mediation will be mandatory for cases under $5,000 (60% of cases in mediation end in a settlement). If there is no agreement, we will suggest that the parties go before an arbitrator. A withdrawal mechanism will allow it to go before a small claims judge.
Second, the time limits and procedures (maximum of five pages for a request and two pages for a contestation) are shortened for all files at the Court of Québec. Examinations for discovery are prohibited for cases under $50,000. In short, we are reducing what we affectionately call “advocacy”.
Minister Jolin-Barrette has tabled an excellent bill, which can nevertheless be improved. Several groups made suggestions to him during the consultations.
We are going with our own suggestion: raise the maximum threshold for small claims from $15,000 to $25,000. In Ontario, we go to small claims up to $35,000. It would improve access to justice because the parties represent themselves in small claims, without a lawyer.
We saved the most spectacular for the end: Quebec wants notaries to be able to become judges of the Court of Quebec (this is reserved for lawyers). It will not change much in terms of access to justice. This is a somewhat surprising decision because lawyers are better prepared to become judges (they do litigation, unlike notaries) and there is no shortage of good candidates. At the same time, notaries can already be administrative judges and arbitrators. It’s not the end of the world that they can also become judges.
The essence of the bill is not in this notary-lawyer debate, but in all the other measures that will improve access to civil justice. Provided that Quebec also increases the funding of the justice system, which notably lacks clerks and special constables.