The Chief Justice of Canada, Richard Wagner, severely criticizes in turn the holding of a secret criminal trial in Quebec. He sees it as a departure from the “fundamental principle” of the publicity of the proceedings – which “does not help the cause of justice”.
“Listen, it’s incredible and it’s very deplorable”, he declares bluntly on the sidelines of a major interview with The duty held in view of the 40and anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In his view, the trial of the police informer, whose existence was revealed by the Quebec Court of Appeal, then by The Press, had “no place”. “When we talk about access to justice, we are talking about transparency. We have a principle that is fundamental in Canada, in Quebec, and that is the principle of public hearings. In English, we say: “open court principle”. Why that ? It is to allow citizens to see justice in action. There is nothing hidden,” added Mr. Wagner, in the judges’ reading room located in the Supreme Court of Canada building in Ottawa.
Questions still unanswered
The Quebec Court of Appeal lifted part of the veil on the trial held in “complete and total closed session”, of which “no trace […] exists, except in the memory of the individuals involved”, through a judgment published on March 23 after having been corrected and redacted. Neither the identity of the judge, nor the district where he presided over the case, nor the charges brought against the police informer nor his sentence have been revealed by the highest court in Quebec. “I don’t understand what happened,” the Chief Justice of Canada said simply, before adding, “I trust your work to find out what happened, or [celui] others. But it sure doesn’t help the cause of justice. »
“Mistakes” and “poorly cut ticks”
Mr. Wagner is careful to salute the quality of Canadian judges. “We have an excellent judiciary. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t mistakes that are made sometimes, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t not badly cut checkmarks on occasion,” said the chief judge. , propped up in a wine-red armchair in front of a Canadian flag. “But generally, we have an excellent, well-trained judiciary,” he continues. The National Judicial Institute, which is headed by Canadian judges, used its expertise in particular to serve a judicial reform project in Ukraine before the Russian invasion, he notes.
That said, Mr. Wagner is concerned about the impact this whole affair could have on public confidence in the justice system and, more broadly, in democratic institutions. “I find it a shame, an incident like this [du procès secret], because it just takes one to maybe raise doubts in some minds, ”he says. “And then it has no place. »
Better understand justice
Richard Wagner was successively judge at the Superior Court of Quebec (2004-2011) and judge at the Court of Appeal of Quebec (2011-2012), before being appointed judge at the Supreme Court of Canada on the proposal of the Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the fall of 2012. More than four years after being made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he says he is working to “enable [aux Canadiens] to better understand our justice system”, by publishing a summary of decisions rendered by the highest court in the land, for example.
Mr. Wagner takes pride in this “initiative”—and others, such as hearing cases outside the federal capital or holding an annual press conference—which he uses to “communicate directly to the people, so that the people know who they are dealing with, that they have a good justice system”. “They have to [les Canadiens] have confidence in the justice system. When people stop trusting their justice system, it’s going to be the beginning of anarchy. And the more you have a credible justice system with the population, the better your democracy will be, ”he argues.