Once a month, The duty challenges history enthusiasts to decipher a current theme based on a comparison with a historical event or character.
In May 1977, the Quebec Bar conference had a sparkling je ne sais quoi. The theme of the meeting which takes place in the Old Capital sets the tone: “The lawyer: witness or agent of change? »
The purring of the profession is no longer possible: lawyers must position themselves in relation to the national question (the Parti Québécois was elected six months earlier), in relation to the reform of automobile insurance (the principle of no fault will deprive them of several lucrative pursuits), in relation to their obvious loss of influence in civil society and especially in relation to the discontent of the population.
Many speakers take turns at Château Frontenac, among whom we find several judges, including Robert Cliche. The latter has just chaired the highly publicized Commission of Inquiry into the exercise of freedom of association in the construction industry.
What he has to say to the lawyers is hardly encouraging: “Lawyers, it must be said, you have lost all form of credibility among the public. You are fighting a rearguard battle and the people who see you speaking out, for example, often with good reasons and with good motivations, today, against the system of no fault, people look at you and say: “If the lawyers are against it, that means it must be good!” »
This reputation is not new, of course: from the 18the century, under the British regime, we denounce here these quarrelsome lawyers, who enrich themselves from human tragedies and who bleed their clients. It is the wealth of these lawyers that Cliche still mocks in his speech: “Your offices cost you dearly. You started by putting down thick, soft rugs to muffle all kinds of noises that might disturb you. And you’re not here often. There are many who travel, who are part of the jet set. You put pictures on the wall which are often not beautiful, but which cost you a lot of money. »
Cliche triggers general hilarity: “So, don’t you be surprised, my dear friends, that in all the struggles you wage, no one listens to you and no one hears you, and everyone is dying of laughter. But you will be saved. You will be saved because 50% of you will become poor! »Is this a joke? A little histrionic cliché, but it’s serious.
A popular judge
Born in Saint-Joseph de Beauce in 1921, the son of (future) judge Léonce Cliche grew up in a red family. His career path is not surprising: the classical course was followed by law studies at Laval University, at the same time as a certain René Lévesque, with whom Robert Cliche played a lot of poker.
The latter also dates a medical student, Jacques Ferron, whose sister he will soon marry, the author Madeleine Ferron. He was admitted to the Bar in 1944. Until then, in Red Venice, not a boat moved. What happens next is a little more surprising.
The liberal activist, rather than celebrating the end of duplesism, is looking for a… new party. Indeed, Cliche quickly turned to the New Democratic Party, of which he chaired the Quebec wing from 1964 to 1968, in order to pursue a real socialist approach. The contrast is striking: the leader of a left-wing party ignites the halls of Beauce, a region where people vote mainly for the Social Credit and conservatives. He ran as a candidate in the federal elections from 1965 to 1968, in Beauce and in the Laval region.
In vain, despite his reputation as a local hero. Perhaps to calm the impetuous lawyer, the competent authorities appointed him, in 1972, associate chief judge of the Provincial Court, with the task of establishing the new Small Claims Court. Two years later, he accepted the challenge of cleaning the Augean stables: following the ransacking of the Baie-James construction site by a member of the FTQ-Construction, in March 1974, he was asked to chair a commission which must shed light on the immoral and criminal behavior of union workers.
The report is devastating. And it is written with aplomb: “Only 364 days passed between our swearing in and the submission of this report. We have not wasted time: only illusions. » But since Beauce is never far away: “The good old popular wisdom […] encourages optimism: it is never darker than when dawn is about to appear. »
At this time, Cliche was close to people like Gérald Godin and René Lévesque. Is the federalist changing sides, as if he was wrong? In fact, Cliche was never committed to the confederation as such, but rather to the country’s potential to achieve socialist goals.
Provincial policy could not contain the scale of its ambitions for French-speaking minorities, as well as for workers and farmers across Canada. Disappointed by the NDP’s electoral results, he kept the same discourse inside and outside the party: either special status for Quebec or separation.
The 12 righteous
We are here at the time of the Bar Congress in Quebec, in May 1977. Judge Cliche does not mention the possible poverty of lawyers for nothing. “Having average income, you [les avocats] will start to turn towards the working classes, the popular classes. […] And you will have to find the popular soul at the Bar. »
This is what Judge Cliche discovered in his native country. His wife, Madeleine (especially her, in fact), and he devoted two works to the history of the Beaucerons, When the people make the law (1972) and The Beaucerons, these rebels (1974). They depict a population which maintains itself away from the great central powers, sovereign, proud and united.
Good is dictated neither by legal texts nor by religious authorities, but by the imperatives of community life and this “popular wisdom” which is anything but an empty expression for Cliche. The Beaucerons follow their own law, particularly for family law. “The popular mentality does not accept the spirit of the official law which especially favors the parents. She kept this traditional principle alive within her: true parents are those who raise and love the child. »
They also know how to make themselves heard when official law transgresses their idea of justice: the Ferron-Cliche couple describes the actions of Beauceron jurors who, in 1918, blocked the trials of anti-conscriptionist rioters. They will force Crown lawyers to drop all charges against their 165 compatriots who refused to register for conscription. For Cliche, this takeover by the people of the legal system represents an essential counter-power.
Beyond regional specificities, the historiography of Madeleine Ferron and Robert Cliche builds a plea for true popular sovereignty. Popular justice becomes for them a historical model and their main argument for a greater place for the citizen, his values, his customs and his voice in public affairs.
Beauceron insubordination, especially after recent years of health crisis, can be embarrassing to celebrate. But let us not see in this protest a deviation from the work of Madeleine Ferron and Robert Cliche. All in all, recent events showing Beauce to be reactive, if not explosive, are the epiphenomenon of an old popular dispossession towards the authorities.
In 1972, in When the people make the lawFerron and Cliche write, with the history of Canadian law since the Conquest in mind: “the government does not [le citoyen] does not yet appear as an instrument that could belong to it. » Faced with the fever of recent years, Cliche would probably add what he already said in May 1977: “I would like to quote you a sentence from one of my favorite authors; I have no choice, it was Madeleine Ferron, my wife, who wrote this in one of her books: “The people are the only authentic force. Momentarily he may wander, he may be tricked, he may be mistaken, but in the end he can never be wrong, because in the end he can never part with his soul.” »
Robert Cliche’s attitude, very close to populism, perhaps contains the remedy. He never sought to “enlighten the people”, but always to understand them deeply, in order to act for them and with them. This is ultimately what he asks of lawyers, of political elites and of us, readers: “I would like to find among you others ten or twelve righteous people who become the torches, and the true ones, […] [qui] truly work for the fundamental values in which the people believe. » Notice to those interested.
To suggest a text or to make comments and suggestions, write to Dave Noël at [email protected].