The Judicial Council has indeed begun examining a complaint against Judge Matthieu Poliquin.
Matthieu Poliquin is the young judge who granted a conditional discharge to engineer Simon Houle last June after he admitted his guilt to charges of sexual assault and voyeurism for actions taken in 2019.
In a missive to the authors of a petition calling for the revocation of Justice Poliquin’s appointment, of which The Canadian Press obtained a copy, the Conseil de la magistrature acknowledges receipt of the complaint and confirms that “in accordance with the applicable procedure, the members of the Board will review it at a future meeting.
The note adds that, initially, the members of the Council “will examine whether the alleged facts are likely, or not, to constitute a breach of the Code of ethics of the judiciary and, if necessary, whether there is reason to investigate the complaint”.
An outcry after the absolution
The petition, posted on July 7, garnered more than 4,600 signatures in one week.
The judge’s decision raised an outcry, not only because of the discharge itself, but especially because of the reasons given by the judge to grant it. Matthieu Poliquin thus considered, in support of the absolution, that the sexual assault had taken place “all in all quickly”, that the accused had been drinking and that he was “a person of good character”.
The judge also pointed out that a conviction “would have particularly negative and disproportionate consequences for him, since he would have difficulty traveling outside the country, which could possibly hamper his career as an engineer”.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), who was demanding 18 months’ imprisonment, has already indicated that he will appeal this decision.
Contrary to the usual discretion displayed by a Minister of Justice, the holder of the post, Simon Jolin-Barrette, left his reserve, saying he was “deeply shocked by the decision”. It was he who appointed Justice Poliquin in September 2021.
The decision also sparked a protest outside the Montreal courthouse on Sunday, and an open letter signed by nearly 40 engineers, published on Tuesday, aimed to denounce the fact that the attacker’s profession could have served to mitigate his sentence.
Engineer Simon Houle, who lost his job following the media coverage of his case, had also admitted during his trial to have committed another act of sexual assault in 2015 which had not been brought to justice. What’s more, another woman has just filed a complaint against him for touching of a sexual nature which allegedly occurred very recently during a trip to Cuba.