The Chief Justice of the Court of Quebec is tired of being kept in the dark about the mysterious secret trial recently uncovered in Quebec. After unsuccessfully doing “all possible checks” to discover the identity of the judge responsible for this extraordinary case, she filed an official judicial request to have the confidential file sent to her.
Posted at 10:45 a.m.
“I still do not know if this case has been decided by the Court of Quebec, but I believe that the redacted version of the judgment published on March 23 raises important concerns that fall within my duties,” writes Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau. in a letter sent Monday morning to all the judges of his court.
“I am therefore asking the Court of Appeal, among other things, to obtain under seal the information that will allow me to assume the responsibilities arising from my duties, either the complete trial file or the relevant elements allowing it to be reconstructed. “, she continues.
On March 25, The Press revealed how the Court of Appeal discovered the holding in Quebec of a secret criminal trial of which all traces had been erased. The accused, a police informant, was allegedly convicted of a crime without a case number being entered in the list of cases handled by the court. The judgment convicting him did not bear a file number and witnesses would have been questioned outside the court, without the proceedings being normally archived at the registry of a courthouse.
“In short, no trace of this trial exists, except in the memory of those involved,” concluded the three judges of the highest Quebec court responsible for reviewing this case.
The Court of Appeal had determined that this exercise was “contrary to the fundamental principles of justice” and “incompatible with the values of a liberal democracy”, but it had not made public the name of the judge who had participated in it nor the district where it sits. The decision of the Court of Appeal, however, cited the rules of the Court of Quebec, which leads many observers to believe that it is this court which is in question.
The judge still hasn’t appeared
But despite the outings of the Minister of Justice, the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, the Bar Association and the opposition parties, the judge who presided over this secret trial has still not come forward.
The chief judge of the Court of Quebec therefore says she is unable to discover his identity, despite his attempts to do so. She therefore asks the Court of Appeal to send her under seal the information that will enable her to do so.
“The intervener, after having read the redacted version of the judgment, unsuccessfully carried out all possible checks with the various judges who had assumed management functions within the Court during the period likely to be affected by the situation. “, specifies his request. If she were successful, the information could be sent to her without the file being made public.
At the same time, as part of a separate process, the Minister of Justice Simon Jolin-Barrette asked his prosecutors to take steps to have the name of the judge revealed to the public.