Posted yesterday at 11:00 a.m.
Ladies and Chief Justices, Mr. Chief Justice, as leaders of the main newsrooms in Quebec, we would like to express our indignation and our deep concern at the holding of what is known as a ” ghost trial” revealed in a judgment rendered by the Quebec Court of Appeal.
It is unacceptable that such a trial could have taken place in Quebec without the public even being informed of its existence and even less of the court before which it took place and of the identity of the judge and lawyers involved. In short, the trial took place in the greatest secrecy, erasing with the stroke of a pencil from the first instance decision maker several centuries of democratic progress and bringing us back to the sad days of the Star Chamber, this arbitrary tribunal created by Henry VII in the 15thand century.
How come such a charade could take place here in 2021? In 2022? Unfortunately, the public does not know until the date on which this trial was held.
Yet it is well established that transparency is one of the foundations of our judicial system.
Indeed, as the philosopher Jeremy Bentham wrote in the 18th centuryand century: “The checks on judicial injustice are effective only in proportion to the publicity of the proceedings. Where there is no publicity, there is no justice… Publicity is the very breath of justice. It is the greatest incentive to effort, and the best protection against dishonesty. »
This principle has been affirmed many times by the Supreme Court of Canada: the publicity of judicial proceedings is a rule which should only suffer from very rare exceptions, which will themselves be circumscribed in order to offer as much transparency as possible in each circumstance.
In recent years, acceding to the requests of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions and defense lawyers, it unfortunately seems that Quebec courts have given more and more importance to these exceptions, gradually eroding the principle of judicial transparency. In this sense, the phantom trial brought to light last week is the logical outcome of this slow drift.
This revelation raises many questions. Who were the lawyers and the judge involved? Was this process endorsed by other players in the judiciary? Are there other files that have been treated in a similar way? These are just some of the questions that citizens are entitled to get answered.
It is about public confidence in the justice system. This was considerably undermined by the way in which this trial was held.
This is not only about shedding light on past actions, but also learning from them in order to prevent them from happening again in the future.
We are therefore asking for an in-depth review of the practices of Quebec courts and of criminal record attorneys with regard to the publicity of court proceedings so that, on the one hand, this type of “ghost” trial can no longer occur and, on the other , to verify in current files what can be improved in order to ensure the public’s right to judicial information.
The media have a role in informing the public and are therefore well placed to actively contribute to this process. Together, we will be able to find solutions promoting the publicity of legal proceedings and the public’s right to information.
* Co-signatories: Luce Julien, Director General of French Services Information at Société Radio-Canada; Julie-Christine Gagnon, director of programming at 98.5 fm, Cogeco Media; Karen Macdonald, news director at Global News Montreal; Lenie Lucci, acting editor of Montreal Gazette ; Melanie Porco, news production supervisor at CityNews Montreal (Citytv); Helen Evans, Director, Journalism CBC Quebec; Brodie Fenlon, editor at CBC News; Geneviève Rossier, publisher and general manager of the French service of La Presse Canadienne; Eric Trottier, General Manager of Sun ; Hugo Fontaine, CEO of The gallery ; Eric Brousseau, General Manager of Law ; Christian Malo, Managing Director of The Voice of the East ; Stéphan Frappier, General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of news writer ; Marc St-Hilaire, General Manager of the Day-to-day