The Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, is outraged by the fact that the Conseil de la magistrature du Québec (CMQ) exceeded its annual budget by more than 40% last year, among other things to challenge provisions of the Charter of the French language and assert its right to require bilingualism among judges.
The CMQ, which oversees the work of approximately 450 judges, spent close to $1.1 million in the legal battle over the bilingualism of judges. This is the largest cost overrun reported by the CMQ in its 2022-2023 annual budget.
“The fact that more than $1.1 million was taken from the pockets of taxpayers to challenge a law duly adopted by their elected representatives in the National Assembly is not acceptable,” indicated Minister Jolin- hair clip Duty. “It is in no way 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”.
Six court cases
In a letter sent to the Deputy Minister of Justice on April 28, the CMQ details the reasons why its expenses were nearly 4.6 million last year, beyond the allocated budget of 3.2 million.
“The gap between the projected envelope and the actual expenditure [pour l’exercice 2022-2023] is explained by the fact that the Council was called upon to assume its functions in the context of six legal cases in 2022,” writes the president of the CMQ and chief judge of the Court of Quebec, Lucie Rondeau.
Of the six files, that concerning bilingualism generated the greatest use of public funds. Justice Rondeau—who was upheld by the Superior Court—believes that it is entirely possible to require judges to master English, for reasons of court efficiency.
Minister Jolin-Barrette sees things differently. He legislated to prohibit the systematic requirement of bilingualism. This prohibition, which now appears in section 12 of the Charter of the French language, is again challenged by the CMQ in the Superior Court.
No “control” of parliamentarians
The cost overruns at the CMQ were revealed last week, during the study of the credits of the Ministry of Justice – an annual accountability exercise conducted in the National Assembly.
Independent MP Marie-Claude Nichols tried to find out how this increase in spending could be justified. In front of her, the Minister of Justice recalled that the CMQ was free to spend its budget “as it wishes”.
“I find it extremely worrying that an organization exceeds its budget by more than one million, which is connected directly to the consolidated fund, and that it is not subject to the control of parliamentarians. It concerns me greatly, ”he nevertheless declared.
Dispute over judges’ schedules
In her letter of April 28 to the Deputy Minister of Justice, Justice Rondeau provides explanations about the cost overruns at the CMQ. In addition to the bilingualism file, the dispute over the reorganization of judges’ schedules resulted in expenditures of nearly $636,000 in 2022-2023.
The dispute stems from Judge Rondeau’s decision to reduce the time judges spend on the bench. The Department of Justice estimated that this choice could put 50,000 criminal cases at risk because of the delays it would cause. The contention was eventually resolved with the help of a facilitator whose services cost $25,000.
The CMQ also exceeded the budgetary envelope that had been allocated to it for the remuneration of personnel. “In short, the budget of $535,000 granted for 2022-2023 was equivalent to the remuneration of 7 employees, while the Council has rather 8 employees”, justifies, among other things, Judge Rondeau. She ends her correspondence by again requesting a meeting on “the various needs of the [CMQ] in terms of the human and technological resources necessary to fulfill its responsibilities”.