Lu Chan Khuong, the former president of the Quebec legal society who reluctantly resigned after a bitter and protracted fracas with the board of directors of the Barreau du Québec, is back on the spotlight.
Quebec
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Right to protest in the streets is a constitutionally protected right
An article of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code that was used to break up demonstrations has been repealed after a Quebec Superior Court judge held that it was unconstitutional in a ruling that reaffirmed that protesting in the streets is a constitutionally protected right.
Justice Guy Cournoyer acquitted Gabriella Garbeau, one of 150 protestors who were fined during a 2011 anti-police brutality march in downtown Montreal under Article 500.1 of Quebec’s Highway Safety Code, which prohibits anyone from using a vehicle or other obstacle to block a highway “during a concerted action intended to obstruct in any way vehicular traffic.”
In a ruling applauded by civil rights activists, Justice Cournoyer overturned a municipal court ruling and found that Article 500.1 was in violation of Garbeau’s right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as protected by the Canadian and Quebec charter of rights. Justice Cournoyer added that there “is no doubt” that these rights protect the right to express oneself on public roads even though “conveying messages” is not the primary purpose of city streets. But the “fact that they were historically used for expression showed” that public roads can be suitable “for exercising the right to freedom of expression,” noted Justice Cournoyer, heeding guidance provided by the Supreme Court of Canada in Canadian Broadcasting Corp. v. Canada (Attorney General), [2011] 1 SCR 19, 2011 SCC 2.
“This is really an important precedent, and it’s something that we want to use in another cases and share with other organizations in other countries,” remarked Cara Zwibel, director of the fundamental freedoms program with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
Under Article 500.1, organizers of demonstrations had to obtain authorization, as is the case in many cities across the country. But the prior approval scheme under Article 500.1 did not provide clear, “precise, and understandable” criteria that allowed organizers to know what requirements they needed to fulfil in order to obtain a permit, noted Justice Cournoyer. Nor did the law detail conditions under which the approval could be revoked. Indeed, the article did not even spell out who was responsible for approving or rejecting the application. “In fact, according to the evidence, no prior approval scheme was implemented nor established,” said Justice Cournoyer in his 92-page ruling in Garbeau c. Montréal (Ville de), 2015 QCCS 5246. “This process was not illusory, it was inexistent.”
The Attorney General of Quebec argued that the law implicitly stated that it was municipal police forces who were responsible for such decisions. But Justice Cournoyer noted that law did not explicitly confer the police with such powers. Nor does the law explicitly state that police were acting as a city’s representative, with the power to authorize demonstrations. At best there was an “informal process of tolerance” in which police exercised discretionary powers to manage and supervise protests, added Justice Cournoyer.
“The judge notes that one cannot rely on police to apply a law correctly when the article is so vague that it could lead to a constitutional violation,” noted Sibel Ataogul, a Montreal lawyer with Melançon Marceau Grenier & Sciortino who represented the Quebec Civil Liberties Union who were interveners in the case. “What’s also very interesting about the decision is that it clearly states that when the legislator delegates such powers to cities, as was the case here, they cannot sub-delegate such powers to the police forces. Police are there to ensure security but they should not be able to take the political decision of deciding who can demonstrate or not, especially without clear criteria.”
Justice Cournoyer also notes that a demonstration can be considered to be peaceful even though a small number of protesters might have committed criminal or regulatory offenses. He added that merely because a person was present at a time when illegal acts were committed during a protest one cannot necessarily conclude that the individual was either encouraging the illegal acts or was trying to help the perpetrators to flee.
“That is a very important finding of the decision because it clearly states that one cannot use violence by some protesters as a pretext to consider the demonstration unlawful,” noted Louis-Philippe Lampron, a law professor who teaches human rights at the Université Laval in Quebec City. “That is the problem with Article 500.1. It was far too easy to declare a protest illegal in spite of the importance of being to protest collectively in a democratic society. The judge underlines the danger of unduly limiting that right.”
According to Zwibel, protests are frequently declared illegal because of the illegal actions of a few individuals, and that “totally undermines” the right to express oneself and to assemble peacefully as it plays on the notion of guilt by association. “The finding that that the actions of a few don’t render an otherwise peacefully assembly no longer peaceful is really an important part of the decision,” said Zwibel.
That doesn’t mean that police will be hindered from arresting violent demonstrators, warned Marie-Claude St-Amant, a Montreal lawyer who represented Garbeau. The decision clearly states that if protesters are committing illegal acts that police should arrest those individuals but neither does it give them carte blanche to declare a demonstration illegal and breach the fundamental rights of “all protesters to express themselves,” said St-Amant, who also practices at the law firm Melançon Marceau Grenier & Sciortino.
Justice Cournoyer’s decision could have an impact on a class action that was launched following a series of mass arrests and fines, under Article 500.1, at a 2012 demonstration in Hull, added St-Amant. It could also have a bearing on another case that is challenging the constitutional validity of a Montreal by-law, known as P6, that requires protesters to give police their itinerary beforehand and prohibits protesters from wearing masks.
In the meantime, Justice Cournoyer gave the provincial government six months to change Article 500.1 and to set clear rules on pre-approval schemes.
“The ruling does not prevent the use of pre-approval schemes,” said Lampron. “The judge does say that it is possible to implement such a scheme but it must be based on clear criteria, and criteria that allow for the refusal of a demonstration only for valid reasons. That is the heart of the ruling.”
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Ruling clarifies circumstances under which securities can be ordered
Tobacco companies suffered a second legal setback in less than a month after the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered two cigarette makers to set aside nearly $1 billion in security, the largest ever in the province’s history, to ensure that money is available to pay victims who won a landmark $15.5 billion class action lawsuit earlier this year.In a ruling that clarifies the exceptional circumstances under which securities can be ordered, the appeal court ordered Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. to pay $758 million in seven quarterly instalments and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. $226 million in six quarterly instalments, beginning in December until next year. If the tobacco manufacturers are successful in having the $15.5 billion judgement overturned on appeal, the security will be returned to them. If not, it will be available for distribution to victims who launched the class action suit. (A motion for security was not sought against JTI-MacDonald Corp. because one of the lawyers became ill).
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Quebec accounting firm CEO calls for elimination of small business tax
The Quebec provincial government should follow Manitoba’s lead and eliminate the business tax for small and medium-sized business with net taxable earnings under $500,000 so long as they invest the amounts saved in employment, innovation, and production, suggested the head of a Montreal accounting firm at a tax conference.
The latest Quebec budget has put the province in a better position to grow and prosper by gradually lowering the general corporate tax rate but the provincial government should contemplate abolishing income tax for small businesses to stimulate the economy even more, said Emilio Imbriglio, the president and chief executive officer of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.
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Federal government given 18 months to amend Indian Act
The federal government has been given 18 months to correct discriminatory provisions in the Indian Act that infringe the Charter of Rights and Freedoms after a Quebec judge held that generations of indigenous women have suffered discrimination based on gender.
Despite several amendments to the Indian Act, the latest in 2010 in response to a ruling by the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, Quebec Superior Justice Chantal Masse found that it still discriminated against women and their descendants on the issue of registration or “Indian status.” The federal government has until January 2017 to amend the discriminatory provisions before they are declared invalid as an unjustifiable breach of the right to equality guaranteed by section 15 of the Charter.
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Tough on crime agenda suffers another blow
The federal government’s tough-on-crime agenda suffered another blow after the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that a legislative amendment slipped into the 2012 omnibus bill that effectively ended mandatory parole board hearings following a suspension, termination or revocation of parole or statutory release was of no force in the province.In a highly-anticipated ruling by the prison law community, the Quebec Court of Appeal held that the legislative change, a cost-savings measure expected to recoup $1.6 million, breached rights guaranteed under section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In a similar vein, the Supreme Court of Canada last year ruled that a federal law passed in 2011 that retroactively abolished accelerated parole review for offenders who had already been sentenced violates a person’s Charter right to not be punished again.
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Tobacco healthcare recovery cost law constitutional, rules appeal court
Tobacco companies lost another legal battle in Quebec after the appeal court sided with the provincial government in a ruling that opens the door province to sue tobacco companies to recover billions in healthcare costs related to smoking.Nearly three months after a landmark ruling ordered three leading Canadian tobacco companies to pay $15.5 billion in moral and punitive damages to Quebec smokers, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that found that while the province’s healthcare recovery legislation does deprive tobacco companies some traditional means of defence it does not affect their right to a fair trial.
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Ombudsman comes down hard on Revenue Quebec
A blistering report by Quebec ombudsman recently accused Revenue Quebec of becoming more intransigent and less respectful report towards taxpayers, prompting an immediate reaction from the provincial finance minister who ordered the tax department to come up with a “concrete action plan” to remedy the “unacceptable” situation.Revenue Quebec “frequently failed” to apply the principles of natural justice or the fundamental rules of procedural fairness while recovering tax dollars, rigidly interpreted fiscal laws which often resulted in needless court action to resolve tax disputes with taxpayers, and “employed inadequate, and even abusive,” auditing methods, according to the latest report by the Protecteur du citoyen, the second year in a row that the taxman was castigated by the ombudsman.
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First Nations can now pursue claims prior to proving Aboriginal rights and title
First Nations can now bring tort claims founded on Aboriginal rights and title before those rights are formally recognized by a court declaration or government agreement after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to end lawsuits by Aboriginal communities against natural resource companies.
The SCC’s decision to dismiss the applications for leave to appeal paves the way for a $900 million class action filed by two Quebec Innu First Nations against Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC) and a separate suit by two north-central British Columbia First Nations against Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. over its diversion of water from the Nechako River since the 1950s.
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Controversial report calls for overhaul of Quebec insurance and mutual fund regulatory framework
A controversial report by the Quebec Ministry of Finance that asserts that the current system governing the distribution of financial products and services in the province needs to be reviewed because it risks becoming inadequate and out-dated has been criticized as being unnecessarily alarmist by financial and legal experts.The long-awaited report recommends wholesale changes to the regulatory framework for insurance and mutual funds. Besides boosting consumer protection coverage in the event of fraud, the report proposes a flexible legal framework to enable insurers to offer products online. It also recommends establishing a legislative framework aimed at individuals who are not insurance professionals but who sell insurance products such as travel insurance and vehicle rental insurance. More contentiously, the report calls into question its “cumbersome” oversight system and the existence of two regulatory bodies.
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Quebec appeal court imposes duty to investigate on business seeking input tax credits
Less than a year after the Federal Court of Appeal held that a supplier’s delinquent fiscal conduct is irrelevant to an input tax credit claim, the Quebec Court of Appeal has muddied the legal waters with a controversial decision that affirmed that Quebec business are expected as part of an effort to impede tax evasion to conduct due diligence on suppliers in order to be able to obtain input tax credits.In a highly-awaited ruling that startled tax professionals, the appeal court held that business are required to do more than simply confirm the validity of a supplier’s GST/HST registration number and confirm that invoices conform to the current legislation and regulations to qualify for input tax credit (ITC) claims. Business have the added duty to authenticate invoices used to claim ITCs originate from the person that actually performed the service, held the appeal court.
“This is a very important ruling for the business and tax world because in a way it can change the way businesses operate in Quebec,” remarked Alexandre Dufresne, a tax lawyer and managing partner of Spiegel Sohmer in Montreal. “It’s unfortunate but you hear more and more people saying I am going to bring my operations in other jurisdictions because the administrative burden is just too heavy in Quebec. It’s reached that point.”
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Court rules there are limits to reverse or correct unintended tax consequences
Taxpayers do not have a general license to “travel back to through time” with the benefit of hindsight to reverse or correct unintended tax consequences of commercial dealings, held the Quebec Court of Appeal in two separate but related rulings.
The rulings effectively limit the scope of the so-called rectification remedy in a tax context under civil law, according to tax experts. A powerful legal instrument, rectification essentially allows taxpayers, under certain conditions, to correct errors in legal documents or instruments that do not reflect the true intention of the parties, and which lead to unintended consequences. Rectification allows the parties to “fix” the terms of the transaction so that the intended tax consequences are achieved. Its effect is retroactive.
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Quebec tax authorities target construction sector
A targeted program launched by Revenue Quebec to recover monies from employers and employees in the construction industry recouped nearly $1.2 billion in the past three fiscal years but critics say that the tax authority could recover more monies and curb black market activities more efficiently by introducing a series of easy-to-implement measures. -
Another blow for Mr. Big operations
A Quebec man convicted of the first degree murder of his pregnant wife following a Mr. Big operation police sting operation is now a free man after the Quebec Court of Appeal found that his confession was obtained under duress, the second time this year that the appeal court has taken a dim view of the elaborate police strategy.“Thousands and thousands of dollars are invested by the state in these Mr. Big operations to try to elicit a confession,” remarked Montreal criminal lawyer Jean-Philippe Marcoux. “And after all that, for it to reach the Court who ordered a stay of proceedings, it is a dismal failure.”
