Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

Public law

  • Few number of claimants prompts questions over class actions

    Nearly three decades after class actions made their first appearance in the Canadian legal landscape, little light has been shed over the proportion of class members who make a claim, which hasn’t stopped some from speculating that the numbers are so low that they call into question the need for class proceedings.

    “Where there is money set aside for individual plaintiffs and they have to apply for the funds, anybody who did the research would find that there’s very little uptake and the funds that are unapplied for are given to charitable organizations,” asserts William Vanveen, a former assistant law professor at the University of Windsor’s faculty of law, now a partner with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP in Ottawa. “The lack of application for relief to the funds by directly affected plaintiffs indicates to me that there isn’t a great social need for these actions.”

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  • Norbourg: Law firms seeking $11 million

    A couple of days after an agreement in principle was reached in the Norbourg class action suit, allowing thousands of investors to recover nearly all the money they lost in one of the biggest investment frauds in the country, a lawyer warned me that the case was far from over.

    That’s because the $55 million settlement against Quebec’s securities regulator, Northern Trust Co. of Canada, Concentra Trust, accountant Rémi Deschambault and accounting firms KPMG LLP and Beaulieu Deschambault did not cover legal fees. “The judge in the case has opened a can of worms,” told me the class action specialist. “It’s unheard of to reach a settlement without agreeing to the legal fees.”

    The lawyer is right. The law firms that negotiated the settlement are seeking $11-million, representing 20 per cent of the $55-million settlement, in legal fees — and the victims are not happy. Three Norbourg victims are expected to be in court today arguing that the amount is far too much, with one saying that lawyers should be receiving up to five per cent while another asserting that 6.5 per cent is reasonable. “It’s disproportionate,” said François Leblanc, an industrial relations consultant whose family lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Norbourg scandal. “In my opinion, 6.5 per cent of the settlement is a reasonable remuneration. They’re calculating $400 an hour, which would give them salaries of $700,000 a year.”

    Quebec Superior Court justice André Prévost is expected to render a decision by month end. “I am conscious that the Norbourg investors have lived through difficult times,” said the judge yesterday. “The conclusion is approaching.”

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  • Anti-SLAPP: Will Ontario follow Quebec’s lead?

    A free-standing statute with focused remedies such as an expedited review process and a statutory recognition of qualified privilege anchor a series of comprehensive recommendations made by a blue-ribbon panel of legal experts who are calling on the Ontario government to enact legislation to crack down on strategic lawsuits against public participation, otherwise known as SLAPPs.

    In the wake of rising concerns over the growing use of litigation to silence critics who speak out on matters of public concern, notably in environmental disputes, the advisory panel appointed by the Attorney General of Ontario recommends new legislation, distinct from existing rules, that would “help to encourage” courts to apply remedies to protect expression on matters of public interest from undue interference.

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  • Anti-SLAPP – A look at Quebec developments

    Barely three weeks after a Quebec judge rendered a landmark ruling that dismissed a $150,000 action after it was held to be a strategic lawsuit against public participation, otherwise known as SLAPPs, a national organization approved a Model Act aimed at reinforcing existing remedies to deter abusive lawsuits.

    In an eagerly awaited judgment, Quebec Superior Court Justice Danielle Turcotte found that a defamation suit launched by Les Constructions Infrabec Inc. against a citizen who asked questions at a municipal council meeting was “motivated by an attempt to intimidate,” marking the first time that a ruling has applied an anti-SLAPP bill sanctioned by the Quebec government on June 2009.

    Only Quebec has anti-SLAPP legislation. In April 2001, British Columbia enacted anti-SLAPP legislation but it was short-lived as it was repealed five months later. Anti-SLAPP bills were also introduced in New Brunswick in 1997 and in Nova Scotia in 2003, but were never passed.

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  • News roundup – Bastarache, Hydro-Quebec & Innu, & scandal-plagued construction industry

    More fallout from the Bastarache report. A former associate deputy-minister who corroborated Marc Bellemare’s version of events is considering going to court. During the Bastarache commission Georges Lalande produced Post-it notes as evidence that he said substantiated Bellemare’s but former Supreme Court of Canada justice Michel Bastarache concluded that it did not did not meet the reliability criteria established by the general rules of evidence. In an interview, Lalande said he felt he was defamed.

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  • Bastarache commission: Respected counsel caught in the maelstrom

    The lead counsel who resigned from the Bastarache Commission after being caught in a maelstrom that raised doubts over his impartiality “deeply regrets” missing the opportunity to leave at the twilight of his career his imprimatur on the inquiry into alleged political interference in the nomination of judges.

    Barely a week after being appointed as the chief prosecutor by former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache, Quebec City lawyer Pierre Cimon bitterly submitted his resignation after becoming the target of intense scrutiny from the media and opposition in the legislature following revelations that he had regularly contributed to the Quebec Liberal Party. Between 2002 and 2007, Cimon made five donations ranging from $250 to $500 – far less than what he gives to the Barreau du Québec’s Foundation or his local parish.

    “I donate to the local parish even though I am not a churchgoer,” said Cimon. “I donate because I believe churches play an important social role. It doesn’t mean that I practice and believe in the church’s dogma or agree with Cardinal Marc Ouellet’s position that abortion should be criminalized. The same holds true for the donations I made to the Liberals. I am a federalist, and that was the only place I could donate.”

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  • Bastarache Commission’s report published

    The jury is out. Now that the Bastarache Commission’s 290-page report on Quebec’s judicial nomination system has been published (including a 34-page English summary), political spinning is in full grind. The report exonerates Quebec Premier Jean Charest, dismisses allegations made by former justice minister Marc Bellemare that the judicial appointment process in Quebec was tainted six years ago, and makes 46 recommendations to address weaknesses in the Quebec judicial selection and appointment process.

    Bellemare dismissed the report, Quebec’s opposition parties claim the report was a farce, and editorials weighed in with their observations.

    Bellemare is sticking to his story. The former minister believes that the public at large will believe his version of events, regardless of the findings of the report. He may have a point. A poll taken by CROP, taken on the Internet, says that 66 per cent still believe Bellemare’s allegations, that is, that he faced undue pressure from Quebec Liberal Party fundraisers (with the consent of Premier Charest) to nominate two judges of the Court of Quebec and promote a third during his tenure as justice minister from April 2003 until April 2004.

    Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois accused the Bastarache commission of ignoring reality while the right-wing party ADQ deplored the gapping omissions.

    In its editorial the Montreal Gazette said that the commission report’s recommendations for improving the appointment process and “enhancing the composition of the provincial judiciary are pertinent.”

    The well-respected French-language Montreal newspaper La Presse has several opinion pieces on the Bastarache, all worth reading, beginning with legal columnist Yves Boisvert who notes that the “prudent” report has made worthwhile recommendations to improve the judicial nomination process.

    Alain Dubuc says that the provincial government has no choice but to act quickly to implement the changes recommended by the former Supreme Court justice while political columnist Vincent Marisal states that lost Premier Charest lost his bet – the findings of the Bastarache report will do nothing to alleviate the pressure on the highly unpopular Premier to hold an inquiry into the construction industry. Rumours of corruption and illicit political ties with the governing party have been growing over the past year.

    The Globe and Mail editorial holds that Premier Charest was “unjustly made to wear the failings of the judicial appointments system,” while the influential French-language paper Le Devoir does not seem to hold much hope that things will change.

    Some pertinent background material I wrote. It focuses on inquiries, immunity within the context of inquiries and recommendations to improve the judicial nomination system made by a panel of experts commissioned by the Bastarache inquiry, recommendations that the Bastarache paid heed to.

    A lot of links, a lot of reading, but all worthwhile as it provides a unique glimpse on how the judicial nomination system has surprisingly captured the attention of Quebecers.

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  • News roundup: National securities regulator challenge, labour strife, Lt-Governor heads to court & Bastarache

    Hearing before the Quebec Court of Appeal on national securities regulator challenge by the Quebec government expected to last a full week.

    Quebec’s legal system may end up being crippled next week as crown prosecutors and lawyers step up their pressure tactics. Ninety per cent of membership representing Quebec government lawyers voted for a strike on Monday. Crown prosecutors are expected to vote on pressure tactics this Saturday. For more background, here’s a story I wrote about the grievances lodged by an organization representing provincial government lawyers.

    Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Lise Thibault heads to court on January 31, 2011 to face criminal charges, including fraud, forgery and breach of trust in connection with allegations of extravagant spending while in public office.

    Long-awaited Bastarache report on judicial nomination system to be released on Wednesday, January 18, 2011. Here are a couple of stories I wrote on the Bastarache inquiry, immunity in commissions of inquiry, and the nature of public inquiries.

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  • Plain language making inroads in Quebec

    In what appears to be a clear sign that the Quebec legal profession has begun to embrace the plain language movement, a guide aimed at lawyers written and published by the Barreau du Québec has proven to be so popular that the law society ran out of copies two days after making it available. (more…)

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  • Inuit using land claims agreements to address the environmental challenges

    In the midst of grappling with the impact of global warming on the Arctic, with a seemingly growing list of nations laying competing claims to maritime access to the Northwest Passage and the riches lying beneath the forbidding landscape, the Inuit are turning towards land claims agreements reached with the Government of Canada to address the environmental challenges faced by their communities.

    Faced with a way of life under siege, the Inuit have already begun testing the flexibility and fluidity of northern land claims agreements, having filed a $1-billion suit against the federal government in what may be a foreshadow of long drawn-out legal battles spurred in part by shifting environmental and climatic changes in the north. (more…)

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  • Growing trend of unrepresented litigants is disturbing, says judge

    The surging number of unrepresented litigants trying to navigate the complex demands of law and procedure may leave legislators with little choice but to review and enact simplified rules of practice to make justice more accessible, said the chief justice of Quebec’s Superior Court at a conference examining the disturbing trend.

    The figures are alarming, with an average of 37 per cent of parties representing themselves in civil matters before Quebec Superior Court, revealed Judge François Rolland. In divorce cases before Quebec Superior Court, 36 per cent of Quebecers are unrepresented litigants, a figure that rises to 42.1 per cent in family matters dealing with child custody and separation. Almost 42 per cent of parties appealing a sentence in criminal matters before Quebec Superior Court are unrepresented litigants while 38.8 per cent of individuals facing a motion that could authorize their psychiatric treatment do not have legal representation, prompting Justice Rolland to remark that if anybody “should be represented it seems to me it’s the treatment cases.”

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  • Appeal for broader access to legal aid snubbed

    A call by the Barreau du Québec to broaden access to legal aid by relaxing financial eligibility thresholds was quickly dismissed by Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier who declared that the provincial government can’t afford to inject more monies into the province’s government-funded legal aid program.

    Before considering reforms, the Quebec government intends to see through a five-year plan launched in 2005 that confers annual indexation coupled with marginal increases of legal aid eligibility thresholds, added Fournier, who articled at a Montreal legal aid office in 1982.

    “There are always requests for increased government assistance but that must be balanced with the capacity of the State and its citizens to pay,” said Fournier at a scrum shortly after the Barreau summoned the government to enact legal aid reforms. “So for the time being we are going to apply the play adopted five years ago.”

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  • Law society urges improvements for people suffering from mental illness

    The figures are disturbing. Barely five per cent of individuals facing a motion ordering their psychiatric confinement were represented by a lawyer before the Court of Quebec in the small town of Alma in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region. In neighbouring Chicoutimi, the figures over a ten-year stretch between 1998 and 2008 were just as appalling. The situation was not much better in Montreal, with less than 25 per cent of individuals facing the same fate even present at such hearings, and of those scarcely half had legal representation.

    Spurred by the wrongful conviction of an intellectually disabled Quebec City man who served six years in prison after confessing to a series of sexual assaults that a DNA test proved he did not commit, a sober report penned by a nine-member committee of the Barreau du Québec issued a slew of recommendations to improve the way the provincial justice system deals with people afflicted with mental illness or suffering from intellectual disabilities.

    “We must absolutely find ways to treat people with mental illness or the intellectually handicapped just like every other citizen,” remarked Jean-Pierre Ménard, a Montreal lawyer specializing in health and medical liability who was part of the committee. “People who are afflicted with mental health problems face atypical legal procedures that infringe fundamental rights. So it is unacceptable that the justice system allows these people to be treated without the right to defend their rights.” (more…)

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  • Quebec to appeal ruling allowing common-law couples from seeking alimony

    Quebec will ask the country’s highest tribunal for permission to appeal a controversial court ruling that has opened the door for common-law couples in the province to seek alimony and may lead to a surge in co-habitation agreements, triggered deliberations over the definition of common-law couples, and spurred debate over the role of the judiciary.

    “The Quebec Court of Appeal is not giving choices to the legislator,” said Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier. “We have to see if we have more room to manoeuvre than what the court of appeal is saying, just to be sure to adapt the right solution for a situation lived by more than one million people.”

    In a ruling that touched off a storm of heated debate that is still raging in the province, the Quebec Court of Appeal declared that s. 585 of the Civil Code was unconstitutional because it discriminates against common-law couples by denying them the same recourse to spousal support as people who are married or in civil unions.

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  • Public inquiries: Unchartered ground for lawyers

    When Simon Ruel was recently beckoned to be deputy chief counsel of the Bastarache Commission, the Montreal lawyer was delighted to have an opportunity to leave his imprimatur in the inquiry into alleged political interference in the nomination of Quebec judges even though he was mindful of the long grind that awaited him.

    An experienced civil litigator, Ruel is well-versed with the inner workings of public inquiries. Senior counsel on the government litigation team at the Gomery Commission and commission counsel with the Cornwall sex scandal Public Inquiry, Ruel penned “The Law of Public Inquiries in Canada,” a recently published book that examines the legal and strategic issues behind inquiry bodies.

    “It’s a privilege,” remarked Ruel, counsel at the civil litigation services of the federal Department of Justice. “It’s not often that lawyers have an opportunity during their careers to represent a matter of public interest on specific incidents in a neutral and objective manner. It is very interesting work.”

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Law in Quebec
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