Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

Judiciary

  • Provincial court judge exceeded limits of his jurisdiction, rules Quebec Appeal Court

    A controversial decision that ruled that a provision of the French language charter that calls for the “immediate and simultaneous” filing of English rulings into French cannot apply to criminal proceedings in the province was overturned by the Quebec Court of Appeal after concluding that the provincial court judge exceeded the limits of his jurisdiction.

    The ruling, a second clear-cut and related missive over the past year aimed at provincial court judges, reaffirms that Court of Quebec judges may declare a provision of a statute inoperative on constitutional grounds but only in proceedings before them, said legal experts. The Appeal Court also castigated in obiter Court of Quebec Judge Dennis Galiatsatos for “relying on pure hypotheticals and adjudicating with a flawed procedural framework.” But the decision does not delve into substantive issues that may be elicited from the constitutionality of section 10 of the Charter of the French Language (C.F.L), added pundits.

    “The Appeal Court could have been much more scathing of the judge but was careful not to go too far because otherwise it would tarnish the reputation of the judge,” noted Stéphane Beaulac, constitutional law professor at the Université de Montréal, specializing in language law, and of counsel at Dentons Canada in Montreal. “The case was really decided on the basis of the question of jurisdiction. Court of Quebec judges can make declarations, but not formal declarations of a general nature.”

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  • Energy board commissioners lose key legal and political battles

    Quebec energy board commissioners have suffered major back-to-back legal and political losses after the Court of Appeal overturned a lower court decision that held they performed quasi-judicial functions and the provincial government passed a sweeping and controversial reform that fundamentally weakens the regulatory powers of the Régie de l’énergie.

    The Quebec government invoked closure in the wee hours of a weekend morning to fast-track a contentious energy bill that will introduce widespread changes to the way the province’s energy sector operates, giving Hydro-Québec free rein to increase its electricity production, with the utility expected to invest some $200 billion by 2025. Bill 69, introduced in June 2024 but passed with the addition of 52 amendments at the last minute without public consultation, allows Hydro-Québec to bypass tendering rules when awarding certain contracts.

    But most alarmingly for critics, the new law curbs the independent oversight imparted by the Régie de l’énergie, an economic regulatory administrative tribunal that oversees the energy sector in Quebec. The Régie, established in 1997, had up until the passage of Bill 69 the power to set the rates and conditions of services for Quebec electricity and natural gas consumers after holding public hearings. Under Bill 69, the provincial government has given itself the right to impose an annual cap on residential rates on the Régie, and that spells trouble for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). “The politicization of electricity rates” means that SMEs will be subsidizing lower electricity costs for other consumers, maintains the business group.

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  • Quebec judicial council launches enquiry against municipal judge

    A Court of Quebec judge from the small claims division on the cusp of retirement is the subject of an enquiry by the Quebec Judicial Council due to “certain” conduct that “likely” constitutes a breach of the Judicial Code of Ethics.

    The unnamed judge was hearing a dispute from a plaintiff who sought reimbursement of past and future expenses for the care of two cats allegedly afflicted with health problems after they were purchased.

    The plaintiff complained about the judge’s conduct, and alleged a lack of impartiality, a lack of respect, poor management of the hearing, and an unjustified refusal to consult his personal notes during his testimony, all of which demonstrated bias by the judge.

    A playback of the hearing recording “reveals a lack of restraint and an inappropriate attitude,” noted the Conseil de la magistrature du Québec in A et Juge, Cour du Québec, Chambre civile, Division des petites créances, 2025 CanLII 48055 (QC CM).

    “The attitude observed suggests a loss of control in the exercise of judicial authority,” added the Conseil. “The judge’s imminent mandatory retirement cannot constitute an argument for refusing to conduct an enquiry. This is particularly so because of the educational and preventive nature of judicial ethics.”

    The Quebec Judicial Council received 150 complaints in 2024, according to its annual report. In all, 122 judges were the subject of a complaint during the year, with nearly a quarter of the complaints lodged against a judge sitting in the Small Claims Division of the Court of Québec.

    Of the 150 complaints, 46 were deemed unfounded at the study stage, 84 held to be unfounded after review, 19 are still being examined, and only one was retained for enquiry.

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  • Judicial appointments stir tempest in a teapot

    The latest series of judicial appointments to Quebec Superior Court federal Justice Minister Arif Virani have stirred a tempest in a teapot after some French media outlets castigated Justin Trudeau’s government for appointing Liberal donors and supporters to judgeships in Quebec.

    The Journal de Montréal and the Quebec legal publication Droit-Inc noted that four judges appointed in the past year by Ottawa were donors to the Liberal Party of Canada. Between January 2024 and January 2025, federal Justice Virani appointed some twenty judges to the Quebec Superior Court, a fifth of them who had contributed to the federal Liberals or campaigned in favour of their positions.

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  • Bill aims to curb delays but stakeholders call for more resources

    A new bill that seeks to curb delays in the justice system and rein in stays of proceedings will be conferring new powers to the justices of the peace by allowing them to oversee criminal court appearances and bail hearings, a development that has received lukewarm praise by Quebec’s main legal actors who were longing for more monies into the system.

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  • Quebec Judicial Council and provincial government still at odds

    The Quebec Judicial Council and the Quebec Justice Minister still do not see eye-to-eye.

    A month ago Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette and Henri Richard, the new Chief Judge of the Court of Quebec reached an agreement over bilingualism requirements for new judicial appointments that seemingly put an end to an appeal for judicial review before Quebec Superior Court. The review seeks to declare unconstitutional and invalid certain legislative and regulatory provisions adopted in 2022 over selection criteria for candidates for the position of judge of the Court of Québec or of a municipal court.

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  • Quebec municipal court reforms draw mixed reactions from legal community

    A comprehensive legislative reform of the municipal court system recently introduced by the Quebec government has drawn mixed reactions, with the legal community applauding the initiative but equally concerned that it may undermine judicial and institutional independence of municipal courts.

    Bill 40, the most significant remodelling of municipal courts in more than two decades, establishes to the surprise of legal observers a management structure for municipal courts that is entirely independent of the Court of Québec; eliminates part-time municipal court judges; and places all municipal judges on an equal footing, allowing them to earn the same salary as current municipal judges who practise on an exclusive basis.

    But to the consternation of legal actors, from judges to the Quebec bar, Bill 40 also grants the government, after consultation with the chief municipal judge, the power to designate a co-ordinating judge and determine the term of office. The bill also provides that co-ordinating judges and the chief municipal judge must send a report on their activities at least twice a year to the Quebec justice minister, and it requires the chief municipal judge to “meet the performance targets of municipal courts and consider the needs of municipalities and litigants.”

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  • SCC to hear appeal over secret criminal trial

    The Supreme Court of Canada will hear an appeal from a slew of media organizations challenging confidentiality orders issued in a secret criminal trial, with no paper trail, that was held in Quebec.

    The secret trial only came to light after the defendant chose to appeal the verdict before the Quebec Court of Appeal.  The trial did not have a case number and was never filed in the province’s judicial archives. As disturbingly, the names of the defence lawyer, the Crown prosecutor and the judge were excluded from the public record as were the offence, date and location of where the trial took place. Moreover, witnesses were interviewed out of court, and the parties asked the judge to decide the case based on transcripts.

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  • Quebec legal world divided over notaries gaining access to the bench

    The Quebec government, after scant debate and without the input or testimony of several major legal actors, has forged ahead in spite of forceful opposition by lawyers’ organizations with a controversial and divisive bill that will allow notaries to be appointed to the bench of provincial courts.

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  • Class action motion judges facing pushback from Quebec Appeal Court

    The Quebec Court of Appeal has overturned no less than eight lower court decisions over the past year that denied class action certification, signaling a possible discord that shows little sign of abating between motion judges more likely to cast a critical eye and the higher court intent on strictly adhering to case law and the teachings of the Supreme Court of Canada, according to class action experts.

    With the Quebec justice system under severe strain, beset by underfunding and vexed by a dire shortage of court personnel, with more than 20 per cent of employees resigning in a year, leaving many Quebec judges compelled to share judicial assistants, class action lawyers speculate that motion judges are taking a harder line on the viability of class actions, all the while taking into consideration the impact it would have on an overtaxed justice system. “Perhaps what is happening is that trial judges have a more concrete understanding of the fact that there are already too many class actions going on in Quebec, be it at the authorization stage or at the trial level,” said Éric Préfontaine, a Montreal class action defence lawyer with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. “There seems to be some kind of disconnect between the assessment some motion judges make” and the Appeal Court.

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  • Quebec Justice Minister openly derides provincial Judicial Council

    Barely a couple of weeks after a special mediator was appointed to settle a fall-out between the Court of Quebec Chief Justice and the Quebec Justice Minister, the minister openly questioned the integrity of the Quebec Judicial Council.

    Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette brazenly derided the provincial Judicial Council (Conseil de la magistrature) at the National Assembly during a clause-by-clause consideration of an access to justice bill, asking members of a parliamentary committee if they “really believe” statements issued in a brief by the Judicial Council.

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  • Mediator mandated to resolve issues between Quebec Justice Minister and Chief Justice

    In an unprecedented move in recent history, a former Quebec Appeal Court justice was appointed as a mediator to resolve a dispute between the provincial Minister of Justice and the Court of Quebec Chief Justice over new judicial appointments and new work schedules for provincial court judges, a development viewed as regretful but necessary by legal observers.

    Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette and Court of Quebec Chief Justice Lucie Rondeau have been at loggerheads in the past year over a slew of issues, ranging from professional and linguistic requirements for judicial candidates to the establishment and implementation of a new domestic and sexual violence specialized court to a reform instituted by the Chief Justice that will curb the number of days that 160 provincial court judges who preside over criminal proceedings will sit — a deadlock that has led to several court battles, all of which were lost by the Quebec government.

    The impasse between Quebec’s leading actors has taken place at a time when the provincial justice system is in dire straits, wilting under the weight of underfinancing and plagued by an acute shortage of court personnel, prompting Quebec Bar president Catherine Claveau to tell me late last year that the “crisis in the justice system has led to a crisis of confidence.” Claveau, alarmed that the conflict between the two protagonists will further undermine public confidence and mask the reasons behind the dismal state of the justice system, called on both to turn to conciliation to find common ground.

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  • Quebec access to justice bill opens door for notaries to sit on provincial court bench

    An access to justice bill that will make free mediation mandatory and arbitration automatic for cases under $5,000 took the Quebec legal community by surprise as it also unexpectedly opens the door for notaries to be appointed to the bench of provincial courts.

    Bill 8, tabled by the Quebec government this month, aims to curb long delays afflicting small claims courts, implements a simplified and accelerated civil procedure for matters brought before the Court of Quebec with a value of between $15,000 and $75,000, and will compel the provincial Judicial Council to publish an annual report and be audited every five years by the Auditor General, all of which are developments viewed positively by the Quebec Bar.

    “We are pleased that several provisions of Bill 8 echo requests made by the Barreau to the Justice Minister on measures that could help facilitate access to justice,” said Catherine Claveau, the bâtonnière of the Barreau du Québec. “The provisions relating to mandatory mediation and arbitration is an excellent avenue to improve access to justice and a concrete way to promote alternative methods of dispute resolution.”

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  • Quebec justice system in the midst of ‘collapsing, say leading legal actors

    The Quebec justice system is in the midst of “collapsing,” sagging under the weight of underfinancing and bedevilled by a “catastrophic” shortage of court personnel, with more than 20 per cent of employees resigning in a year, prompting leading legal actors to describe the situation as “embarrassing” and even more alarmingly, kindling a public lack of confidence in the province’s justice system.

    The situation has never been so dire, worse than late this spring when a vexed legal community warned the Quebec government that the justice system, mired in a series of crippling labour standoffs that spurred mounting adjournments, was desperately in need of more funds to prop up the justice system. But while tense labour relations with a host of legal actors have subsided since the fall thanks to new collective agreements and a new legal aid accord, legal pundits assert far more has to be done to halt the exodus of courtroom personnel who are leaving in droves because remuneration is simply not competitive.

    “There is a crisis in the justice system that has led to a crisis of confidence,” noted Catherine Claveau, president of the Quebec Bar. “And I, as the president of a professional order whose primary mission is the protection of the public, when the situation of underfunding in particular means that our institutions are undermining the right of citizens to have access to effective and quality justice, well for me, this corresponds to a real crisis.”

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  • Chief Justices call for modernization of court system

    The chief justices of four courts, addressing hundreds of judges and lawyers in person at the Montreal courthouse for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, broadly outlined their priorities and concerns at the Quebec’s opening of the courts ceremony, from the promise and pitfalls of technology to modernize the justice system to the debilitating impact of chronic underfinancing to the erosion of decorum in the courtroom and the pernicious effects of disparaging social media comments.

    The chief justices, faced with no choice but to implement technological innovations at breakneck speed after COVID-19 struck in March 2020 in order to arrest the temporary paralysis of the justice system, now warn that while technological modernization of courts is inevitable and necessary, it is not the panacea that will resolve the host of challenges confronting the justice system.

    “The digitization of the courts will not solve all the problems we face, and it may even raise new ones, but it is a step in the right direction,” remarked Quebec Court of Appeal Chief Justice Manon Savard who underlined that the appellate court is working “intensely” with the provincial Ministry of Justice to to establish a digital Court of Appeal within the next two years.

    “This movement is irreversible. Society as a whole is increasingly turning to digital processes, in all sectors of activity. Courts must keep pace. In order to maintain or even improve the efficiency of courts in a post-pandemic context, the implementation of a reform focused on the use of technology will certainly be part of the solution,” said Chief Justice Savard in the summit entitled “Building the Future.”

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Law in Quebec
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