Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

Employment & labour law

  • Following back-to-work legislation, mass exodus of Quebec Crown prosecutors is feared

    Several weeks after the Quebec government enacted back-to-work legislation that compelled striking Crown prosecutors and government lawyers, two Quebec Crown prosecutors have submitted their resignation, the beginning of what some fear may prove to a mass exodus.

    Charles Levasseur, a crown prosecutor who handled many high-profile cases, notably the case dealing with former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Jacques Delisle accused of murdering his wife, is stepping down. He said that while other factors came into play, the labour conflict “probably” precipitated his decision to work for the law firm Thibault Roy Avocats. “The last conflict was difficult. It made me realize that the Crown will never be the same, and my motivation will never the same. That is the impact of the back-to-work legislation,” said Levasseur in an interview with a French-language legal website.

    That is likely a sign of things to come, fears Gilles Ouimet, the head of the Barreau du Québec.

    (more…)

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags: , , ,

  • Imposed settlement leaves bitter taste

    Days after the Quebec government enacted back-to-work legislation that compelled striking Crown prosecutors and government lawyers, a movement appears to be afoot to mollify the rancorous atmosphere reigning between the principle actors of the province’s justice system.

    It’s not going to be easy.

    Louis Dionne, director of criminal and penal prosecutions, met with Quebec’s chief prosecutors and assistant chief prosecutors, the majority of whom asked for reassignment in a show of support with striking lawyers, for a five-hour stretch in Quebec City. Dionne, who refused to grant the reassignments, described the meeting as being “constructive.” He also admitted that the Quebec Crown is in need of “oxygen.”

    But for many it’s too little, too late. The association representing Quebec crown prosecutors called for Dionne’s resignation, saying he should have spoken up during the labour conflict, and not after the back-to-work legislation was adopted. “Crown prosecutors do not understand, and are even angry, that their boss did not publicly come to their defence at a time when the Quebec criminal justice system was living through its worst crisis,” told me Christian Leblanc, the head of the Quebec crown prosecutors association.

    The imposed settlement has been harshly criticized by Quebec’s legal community. One lawyer told me that lawyers – and judges — are discouraged by the turn of events. Another said that, while he is optimistic by nature, he is pessimistic that things will get better, adding that successive Quebec governments have paid little heed to the administration of justice.

    In a letter to its 23,000 members, the head of the legal society the Barreau du Québec, said that the government has ruptured the bond of trust with public sector lawyers by enacting back-to-work legislation – a rebuke that a former Barreau administrator described as being too little, too late.

    Morale is low, and the repercussions will likely reverberate throughout the corridors of justice for quite some time. Unless the Quebec government has a change of heart and begins to seriously address issues that need to be grappled with, assert legal observers, the very same that say that it is not likely.

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags: ,

  • Trucking company ordered to pay $10,000 for discrimination

    A Montreal-area trucking company has paid the price for having a well-entrenched policy of refusing to hire female truck drivers.

    The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ordered Bernard Wolinsky, owner of Laurentian Shavings Products Inc. and Lanjay Peat Moss Inc., to pay $10,000 to a female truck driver for discrimination.

    The Tribunal, which found that Wolinsky refused to consider the complainant’s application because she was a woman, held that her right to be treated with equality and dignity had been breached. She was awarded $7,000 in moral damages, and $3,000 in punitive damages.

    The complainant, answering a classified advertisement, dropped off her curriculum vitae at the company’s headquarters. As the complainant was shown into Mr. Wolinsky’s office, he told her that he did not hire women. He did not interview her even though she had five years experience working part-time for a number of transportation companies.

    According to the evidence before the Tribunal, Wolinsky told her: “We don’t take women here. It’s very difficult for a woman to remove the snow from the roof of the trailers.” When informed by a Human Rights Commission investigator that a complaint was lodged against him, Wolinsky replied: “I don’t hire women. It is my prerogative.”

    In 2009-2010, the Human Rights Commission investigated 52 files of sex discrimination, 35 of which were related to employment, and several involved women’s access to non-traditional jobs.

    The complainant, answering a classified advertisement, dropped off her curriculum vitae at the company’s headquarters. As the complainant was shown into Mr. Wolinsky’s office, he told her that he did not hire women. He did not interview her even though she had five years experience working part-time for a number of transportation companies.

    According to the evidence before the Tribunal, Wolinsky told her: “We don’t take women here. It’s very difficult for a woman to remove the snow from the roof of the trailers.” When informed by a Human Rights Commission investigator that a complaint was lodged against him, Wolinsky replied: “I don’t hire women. It is my prerogative.”

    In 2009-2010, the Human Rights Commission investigated 52 files of sex discrimination, 35 of which were related to employment, and several involved women’s access to non-traditional jobs.

    Categories: , , , ,
    Tags:

  • Top crown prosecutors resigning

    The high-stakes poker game has begun.

    The Quebec government is in the midst of tabling back-to-work legislation to end the two-week dispute with provincial crown prosecutors and government lawyers. It appears that Bill 135 will hand lawyers working in the public domain a six per cent increase until 2015, a far cry from the 40 per cent hike sought by crown prosecutors and government lawyers in order to attain parity with provincial and federal colleagues.

    In riposte, senior crown prosecutors are resigning from their management positions. Claude Chartrand, Quebec’s chief organized crime prosecutor, set the balling rolling when he tendered his resignation — and so far ten 40 out of of his 50 colleagues followed suit today. More are expected.

    In his letter of resignation to Louis Dionne, director of criminal and penal prosecutions, Chartrand said the province does not have enough prosecutors to proceed against 155 Hells Angels members charged with money laundering in the wake of Operation SharQC, a police crackdown on the biker gang. The SharQC legal team is composed of ten crown prosecutors, a figure that is supposed to be 16.

    In the meantime, the provincial legal society, Barreau du Quebec, has denounced the back-to-work legislation.

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags:

  • Back-to-work legislation looms as negotiations fail

    Quebec Premier Jean Charest has summoned all members of the National Assembly to a special session today to enact back-to-work legislation after a negotiated settlement with Quebec’s 1,500 striking Crown prosecutors and government lawyers have stalled, raising the spectre of mass resignations.

    “I regret that we are forced to have a special law because the consequences of the absence of the prosecutors is a heavy burden on the system of justice,” Charest said yesterday.

    Government lawyers, the lowest paid in the country, are asking for salary parity with their colleagues across the country. Crown prosecutors are also pressing the government to create 200 more positions.

    The creation of a new anti-corruption squad, announced last week, in response to allegations of corruption in the construction industry is now in jeopardy. The province’s striking Crown prosecutors said they will not take part in any corruption probes if they are legislated back to work.

    Crown prosecutors have described the back-to-work legislation as immoral and irresponsible, pointing out that it would be the second time in five years that the Quebec government has decreed wages and working conditions for crown prosecutors and government lawyers. They are threatening to resign en masse.

    Categories: ,
    Tags:

  • Strike by Quebec crown prosecutors & government lawyers

    Tomorrow the Quebec government and lawyers on the public payroll, who launched a strike two days ago, will sit at the table before a mediator.

    The last time round, when government lawyers negotiated with the Conseil du tresor, the government body that controls the purse strings, only minor issues were settled over the course of six sessions with a mediator, Marc Lajoie, head of the Association des juristes de l’État (AJE), told me.

    Quebec Crown prosecutors never even got that far. They negotiated with the help of a conciliator, someone with less powers to forge an agreement than a mediator.

    Crown prosecutors want above all binding arbitration. It’s something that they wanted for years, to no avail. They were granted the right to strike by the provincial government in 2003 — something they never asked for and never wanted, said Christian Leblanc, head of the Quebec crown counsel association (APCPPQ).

    With the government offering a salary increase of nine per cent, and public sector lawyers seeking a 40 per cent increase, it remains to be seen whether a mediator can bridge the wide gulf.

    ***

    The strike is beginning to have an impact. At least four individuals in three different cases have been acquitted since the strike began two days ago, and the walkout appears to be the culprit. A Toronto man facing speeding charges was acquitted as were two men accused of theft, and a 41-year old woman accused of attempted murder. The Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, the government body that oversees Crown prosecutors, is contemplating appealing.

    Categories: ,
    Tags: ,

  • Quebec’s justice system paralyzed

    Exasperated that labour negotiations with the Quebec government are at a standstill, provincial crown prosecutors and government lawyers have joined forces to launch a general strike that will likely cripple the province’s justice system — unless there is a striking turnabout in the government’s seemingly unyielding stance.

    Asserting that they are the worst-paid in the country and woefully understaffed, making it all but impossible to recruit new staff and adhere to their code of professional conduct, members of the Quebec crown counsel association (APCPPQ) and the Association des juristes de l’État (AJE) recently voted overwhelmingly – a 90 per cent landslide — in favour of a general strike.

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , , ,

  • Law firms coming to grips with retirement issues

    The figures are stark. It is estimated that nearly 70 per cent of law firm partners are “baby boomers,” according to Hildebrandt International, an international legal consulting firm. In the United States, the latest figures reveal that approximately 400,000 lawyers will reach retirement age at some point within the next decade. Nearly a third of California’s 170,000 active attorneys are older than 55, and 21 per cent older than 60. Closer to home, 8,284 of its 22,500 members are over the age of 50, according to the latest figures from the Barreau du Québec. In Ontario, a startling 42 per cent of lawyer licensees, for a total of 17,850, are over the age of 50, reveals a demographic breakdown from the Law Society of Upper Canada.

    Yet though the median age in the profession has increased, with the youngest baby boomers expecting to reach the mid-50s and the oldest the early 70s by the year 2018, Canadian law firms are seemingly struggling to come to grips with the changing demographics and are slow, if not reluctant, to deal with retirement as a major firm issue, assert legal industry observers.

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • Bad workplace habits

    Alisson Wolf, a certified executive coach, has always wondered why smart, talented, dedicated, and hard-working lawyers sometimes make such a mess out of management.

    The current business model in many private practice law firms, a high-pressure environment that fosters internal competition, feeds on low trust and demands top quality work churned out at a clip pace, may be partly to blame. The partnership arrangement that governs the legal world and its well-entrenched formula-based compensation system may be also at fault. With much current practice in firm governance, organization and compensation providing fodder for office politics, sources of conflict, and discord, it is hardly surprising that unseemly conduct sometimes arises.

    (more…)

    Categories: , ,
    Tags: , ,

  • Quebec Crown Prosecutors overworked and underpaid, says Association

    Exasperated that ongoing discussions with the Quebec government to improve working conditions have led to little progress, the Quebec Association of Crown Prosecutors has publicly taken to task the provincial government for the second time in three months.

    The association is calling on the provincial government to hire another 220 crown prosecutors in order to halt an exodus of experienced lawyers resigning from their jobs to accept higher-paying positions. Over the past year, seven crown prosecutors quit their jobs at the Montreal courthouse, three of whom became Alberta provincial prosecutors where salaries are 40 per cent higher, says Association president Christian Leblanc.

    “We cannot do the work with 430 prosecutors,” said Leblanc, a provincial crown prosecutor for the past 13 years. “We need at least 650 prosecutors in order to be able to adequately prepare our cases, meet with victims and witnesses, and read the jurisprudence. What we are denouncing, above all, is the workload. There is no doubt that it is having a negative impact on the quality of service we are able to offer to the public.” (more…)

    Categories: , , ,
    Tags:
Law in Quebec
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.