While she was swimming in mystery at the beginning of April, the Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec, the Honorable Lucie Rondeau, obviously learned, a month and a half later, certain things about the secret trial of which the outfit was made public by the Court of Appeal and by The Press end of March.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
On March 25, The Press revealed how the Court of Appeal had discovered the holding in Quebec of a secret criminal trial of which all traces had been erased. The accused, a police informant referred to as a “named person” in the Court of Appeal’s judgment, was allegedly convicted of a crime without a case number being entered on the list of cases handled by the court.
The judgment convicting him did not bear a file or district number, and witnesses were said to have been questioned outside the court, without the proceedings being normally archived at the registry of a courthouse.
The trial judge made a decision without hearing the witnesses, but by reading the transcripts of their testimony. The name of the magistrate and those of the prosecution and defense lawyers are unknown.
“In short, no trace of this trial exists, except in the memory of those involved,” concluded the three judges of the highest court in Quebec responsible for reviewing this case.
31 out of 40 paragraphs
After the shock wave created by the publication of this decision, Mme Rondeau tried, unsuccessfully, to find out the name of the trial judge who had presided over the secret trial.
His lawyers filed a motion at the beginning of April asking the Court of Appeal to hand over to him, under seal, the trial file.
They filed a new amended request a few days ago accompanied by a heavily redacted argument of a dozen pages.
IMAGE FROM CHIEF JUSTICE’S MOTION
Page 1 of the Chief Justice’s “written argument”
Of the 40 paragraphs of the argument, 31 are completely or partially redacted, in particular all 7 paragraphs of a section entitled “The facts”.
“Since the filing of his motion, the Honorable Judge Rondeau has indeed received information which is for the moment confidential because of the privilege of the informant”, indicated to The Press counsel for the Chief Justice, Mr.and Max Roy.
Mme Did Rondeau manage to obtain the name of the judge who presided over the secret trial? The names of the lawyers involved? The nature of the offence? The reason why the trial was held secretly? We ignore it for the moment.
It is with regret that we have been obliged to redact our argument so much, because for Judge Rondeau, the publicity of the proceedings is very important and we hope that the steps taken by the media in the Court of Appeal will make it possible to enlighten the public.
Mand Max Roy
Several media, including The Press, filed motions in the Court of Appeals to overturn the orders barring access to the secret trial file. The motions will be debated on June 6.
The Minister of Justice of Quebec, Simon Jolin-Barrette, for his part asked his attorneys to take steps to have the name of the judge revealed to the public.
To reach Daniel Renaud, dial 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.