Dominic Lacroix, a Quebec City businessman believed by Quebec’s financial watchdog to be behind the virtual currency PlexCoin, was found guilty of contempt of court.
Quebec Superior Court
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Quebec City businessman believed to behind PlexCoin found guilty of contempt of court
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Decision may grant tax authorities with much leeway
Quebec Superior Court overturned a ruling that held that the investigative methods used by federal and provincial tax authorities to investigate corruption in the Quebec construction industry were “highly reprehensible,” paving the way for Canada Revenue Agency and Revenue Quebec to once again pursue tax evasion inquiries that were put on hold for the past two years. -
Retailer ordered to pay $1 million in punitive damages in class action
Canada’s largest discount furniture and appliance retailer was ordered to pay $2.36 million, including $1 million in punitive damages, to thousands of consumers after Quebec Superior Court found that it engaged in deceptive advertising and marketing with its popular “buy now, pay later” promotions.
The ruling, one of a handful of Quebec class actions that was decided on its merits, represents a convincing victory for consumer’s rights and serves as a cautionary tale for business that rely on false and misleading advertising pitches to lure customers, according to legal experts.
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Quebec notaries and lawyers lose legal battle against title insurers
The governing bodies of the Quebec legal and notary professions lost a suit against American-based insurers after Quebec Superior Court held that they did not overstep their bounds in preparing, registering and discharging mortgages on real estate.
In an eagerly-awaited decision that highlights the growing impact of technology on the legal profession, Justice Chantal Chatelaine held that insurers that offer title insurance do not practice law, do not provide legal opinions, and do not prepare or draw up mortgages.
“The importance of the case has to do with the obstacles which can be put in the way of modernization and efficiency,” remarked Simon Potter, Ad. E., a Montreal lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault LLP who successfully plead the case on behalf of FCT Insurance and First Canadian Ltd, part of the global company FAF International.“This case revolved around whether rules governing who could do certain acts could be done only by lawyers or notaries or whether they could also be done by people trying to make life easier for banks or their borrowing customers. The judgment doesn’t at all say that lawyers and notaries should be worried about losing the exclusivity or monopoly over things which the statutes make exclusive for them.”
But François Brochu, the director of the master’s program in notarial law at the Université Laval, described the ruling as “explosive” as it provides yet more clear-cut evidence that technology is “muddying the waters” in the legal marketplace.The decision also has the potential to increase title defects in Quebec, added Brochu. At present, titles in Quebec are generally in “very good shape” because notaries have systematically corrected defects, asserted Brochu. That in turn explains why the province is an enticing market for title insurers as there is very little risk to them, said Brochu.
“There is a risk that titles will deteriorate in Quebec because title insurance does not really solve problems,” said Brochu. “It lets defects remain in place until it bursts which in turn can lead to higher insurance premiums. That is a real fear because that is what has happened virtually everywhere where title insurance has been established.”
Sylvain Lussier, Ad. E., a Montreal lawyer with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, who too successfully plead the case for Chicago and FNF Canada, whose parent company is US-based Fidelity National Financial Inc., doesn’t buy it. He believes this case boils down to a turf war.“Instead of looking forward, professional orders look back and drape themselves around the notion of the protection of the public even though the public is very happy because it costs them less,” said Lussier. “Since title insurance came to Quebec, there have been no complaints by the public. It’s only about corporatism, to protect its members, which is not part of the duty of professional corporations.”
In a comprehensive 63-page ruling, Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Chatelain dismissed that viewpoint just as she dismissed arguments by the Chambre des notaires and the Barreau du Québec that the insurance companies performed acts that should be restricted only to their members. Both professional corporations sought a declaratory injunction to halt the practice by title insurers of “controlling the entire process” of preparing and drawing up legal acts, including verifying claims to land and providing legal advice and consultations. They also argued that it was title insurers who determine and pay fees to the acting notary. In short, acting notaries working for title insurers were but a “smokescreen,” argued the two organizations.
Justice Chatelain pointed out that the Chambre de notaires affirmed numerous times over a stretch of several years, from 2003 to 2008, that the services provided by title insurers was legal and legitimate. Only when there was a change of leadership did the Chambre shift its position, noted Justice Chatelain. She also noted that the Chambre’s or the Barreau’s investigating officer never brought penal charges against any title insurers for the illegal practice of the profession.
Echoing findings made by the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick in Law Society of New Brunswick v. FCT Insurance Company, 2009 NBCA 22, Justice Chatelain found that title insurers do not draw up or prepare mortgages.
“They provide a processing service that essentially consists of filing in the blanks of a form in an automated fashion, with the help of information obtained by lending institutions,” said Justice Chatelain in Chambre des notaires du Québec c. Compagnie d’assurances FCT ltée/FCT Insurance Company Ltd., 2017 QCCS 3388.
She also dismissed the contention made by the Chambre and the Barreau that notaries working for these firms were exempted from analyzing and verifying the filled-out forms that they receive. In fact, Justice Chatelaine pointed out that notaries are required to examine the information contained in the deed, provide advice and explanations to the lender, and execute notarial acts.
“The court essentially ruled that nothing that the companies were doing was covered by the exclusive practice provisions,” noted Potter.
The Chambre and the Barreau are now examining the ruling, and declined to comment.
This article originally appeared in The Lawyer’s Daily , thelawyersdaily.ca published by LexisNexis Canada Inc.
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Quebec Superior Court judges launch suit against governments
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n an extraordinary development at a time when the justice system in Quebec is grappling with the after-effects of the landmark Jordan ruling, Quebec Superior Court judges have launched a suit against the federal and provincial government over the exclusive jurisdiction of the Court of Quebec in some civil matters.Tags: Constitution Act 1867 -
Jordan timelines apply to civil matters
The timelines set by the landmark Jordan decision applies to civil cases as well.
The Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Jordan 2016 SCC 27 criticized the country’s legal system for its “culture of complacency” and set out new rules for an accused’s right to be tried within a reasonable time frame. It laid down a ceiling of 30 months for matters before Superior Court cases to be completed. Provincial court trials should be completed within 18 months of charges being laid, but can be extended to 30 months if there is a preliminary inquiry.
Up until recently it was widely considered that the Jordan framework applied to only criminal cases.
Not so, according to two separate rulings by Quebec Superior Court.
In a case dealing with contempt of court proceedings, Justice Pierre Dallaire held that a party charged with contempt, whether civil or criminal, benefits from the protection granted by section 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “There exists no logical justification for making a distinction between the two articles with respect to constitutional protection resulting from the general application of section 11 of the Charter, be it the right against self-incrimination or the right to a trial within a reasonable time,” said Justice Dallaire in St-Amour c. Major 2017 QCCS 2352.
Since the plaintiffs were not able to justify the delay of approximately 58 months — the delay between the summons to appear and the filing of the application to dismiss — Justice Dallaire ordered a stay of the contempt of court proceedings.
More recently, a restaurateur from the Gatineau region who was fined for allegedly operating equipment or restaurant successfully argued that there should be a stay in proceedings because of unreasonable delays.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Carole Therrien noted that 31 months elapsed between the time he received the fine and the scheduled trial date. That exceeds the Jordan timeline, said Justice Therrien in 3341003 Canada inc. c. Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales, 2017 QCCS 3277. And she put the blame on the Bureau des infractions et amendes, a provincial government agency that processes statements of offence and complaints regarding most Quebec penal laws and some federal laws.
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Bell Canada facing yet another class action
Barely a week after Bell Canada’s wireless provider was compelled to pay $1.6 million to some 76,000 clients who paid excessive cancellation fees after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear its appeal, the telecommunication giant now faces another potentially costly legal battle after Quebec Superior Court authorized a class action over fee increases on internet, mobile, telephone, television services.
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New Indian status registrations in jeopardy
A suspension on new Indian status registrations could begin new week unless the Quebec Court of Appeal issues a safeguard order that would temporarily suspend a ruling that ordered the federal government to correct discriminatory provisions in the Indian Act that infringe the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Masse dismissed a motion earlier this week to extend Parliament’s deadline for eliminating sex discrimination from the registration provisions in the Indian Act. Ottawa had already received a couple of extensions.
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Number of photo radar tickets issued in Quebec has dramatically plunged
The number of photo radar tickets that have been issued has dramatically plunged over the past couple of months following two decisions that called into question the rules around the province’s use of the automated speed and red-light enforcement technology. (more…)Tags: photo radar tickets -
Federal government announced two new appointments as well as a reshuffle in the Quebec courts
Barely a week after Quebec Minister of Justice Stephanie Vallée called on the federal government yet again to quickly appoint 10 new Superior Court justices in the province, the federal government announced two new appointments as well as a shake-up in the Quebec courts.
The latest appointments still falls short of what the Quebec government has been demanding. The president of the Quebec Bar, Paul-Matthieu Grondin, said in a tweet published shortly after the nominations that “the federal government MUST appoint judges to the Quebec Superior Court. Yesterday’s appointments are far from enough.”
Still, the new appointments and the reshuffle is nevertheless widely expected to make a dent in the backlog of cases that have plagued the Quebec criminal justice system, particularly since the landmark Jordan decision by the Supreme Court of Canada issued last summer.
Despite significant investments and the appointment of 20 Court of Quebec judges over the past six months by the Quebec government to curb delays in the criminal justice system, Quebec is struggling. The number of Jordan-related requests for a stay of proceedings keeps on surging. There were 895 Jordan applications as of late May, up from 684 at the end of March 2017.
Provincial attorney generals across the country hoping the SCC would back down from the trial timelines set by the Jordan ruling were disappointed after the nation’s highest court unequivocally reaffirmed them recently in R v. Cody 2017 SCC 31. In a unanimous decision, the SCC made it plain that it will not yield to provincial attorneys general struggling with the Jordan timelines.
Thanks to the appointments and reorganization, there will be four more Quebec Superior Court judges. Over the past month federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould appointed seven new Quebec Superior Court judges.
Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Étienne Parent and his colleague Jean-François Émond are heading back to Quebec Superior Court while Quebec Superior Court Justices Simon Ruel and Jocelyn Rancourt were appointed to the appeal court. Also Montreal lawyer Peter Kalichman and Quebec City family lawyer Marie-France Vincent were appointed as Quebec Superior Court Justices.
Biographies
Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Étienne Parent, who was appointed as a puisne judge in June 2015, was appointed as a Superior Court judge in Shawinigan. He replaces Quebec Superior Justice Raymond Pronovost, who chose to become a supernumerary judge in July 2016. A 1982 graduate from Université Laval who was admitted to the Québec Bar the following year, Justice Parent led the Quebec Superior Court Commercial Division for the District of Québec from 2007 to 2011, and then became coordinating judge for the District of Arthabaska, a position he held until his appointment to the Court of Appeal.
In a case of musical chairs, Quebec Appeal Court Justice Jean-François Émond was appointed as a Quebec Superior Court judge for the district of Quebec City, replacing Justice Simon Ruel, who has been elevated to the Quebec Court of Appeal. Justice Émond, received his civil law degree from Université Laval in 1988 and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1989, practised law with the firms of Stein Monast from 2007 to 2009, Desjardins Ducharme Stein Monast from 2003 to 2007, and Huot Laflamme (Marquis Huot) from 1988 to 2003. In May 2009, Justice Émond was named a judge of Quebec Superior Court, and became the coordinating judge of the Commercial Division for the district of Quebec City from 2010 to 2014. In June 2014, Justice Émond was appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal.
Justice Ruel, who was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court in 2014, practised mainly in public and administrative law and government affairs while a lawyer. A member of the Quebec Bar (1995) and of the Law Society of Upper Canada (2007), he began his career with the firm Grey Casgrain, and then became a litigator and counsel to the federal Department of Justice, the Privy Council Office, and the Department of Finance. Before his appointment, he was a partner with the firm BCF Business Law in Quebec City; previously, he had been a partner with Heenan Blaikie.Justice Ruel participated as counsel in numerous federal and provincial public inquiries and investigations, including the federal Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities, the Cornwall Public Inquiry, and the Commission of Inquiry on the Process for Appointing Judges. He also participated in the coroner’s inquest into deaths caused by Legionnaires’ disease in Quebec City in 2012 and represented the Manitoba Commission of Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Death of Phoenix Sinclair. Justice Ruel currently serves on the executive of the Canadian Bar Association Judges’ Forum.
Newly appointed Quebec appeal court justice Rancourt received a Bachelor’s of Social Science (industrial relations) from Université Laval in 1981 and a law degree from the same university in 1984. Admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1985, he began his legal career with McDougall Caron in Montreal. In 1988, he joined the firm of Ogilvy Renault (now Norton Rose Fulbright) to practise labour and employment law. Justice Rancourt was national chair of the firm’s labour and employment law group and a member of its national executive committee until his appointment to the Superior Court of Quebec in June 2015. Justice Rancourt published numerous articles and made presentations at conferences on topics related to human rights, labour law, and occupational health and safety.
Superior Court Justice Kalichman, a well-known Montreal civil and commercial litigator, was prior to his appointment a partner at Irving Mitchell Kalichman LLP. A B.A. graduate from McGill University before attending the Université de Montréal, where he earned a law degree, Justice Kalichman practised as a trial lawyer. He also acted as an arbitrator on the Conseil d’arbitrage des comptes des avocats du Barreau du Québec. Throughout his career, Justice Kalichman received wide recognition for his accomplishments as a trial lawyer, including being named a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which is recognized as the preeminent organization of trial lawyers in North America. Apart from his involvement in law, Justice Kalichman has been an active member of Montreal’s Jewish community over the past 25 years.
Justice Vincent, who too graduated from Laval University in 1995, was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1996. She specialized in family law and became a certified family mediator in 2007. She served as a board member of the Association des familialistes de Québec where she from 2009 and was president from 2011 to 2013.Tags: judicial appointments -
A third guilty plea in residential construction bid‑rigging scheme in Montreal
More than a decade after a tip led the Competition Bureau to conduct an investigation on eight Montreal-area companies suspected of rigging bids for private sector contracts, a Quebec numbered company specializing in the installation of ventilation systems was fined $140,000 fine after it plead guilty to one count of bid-rigging. -
Montreal legal aid lawyer appointed Quebec Superior judge
A Montreal legal aid lawyer with a remarkable personal journey has become the latest judicial appointment to Quebec Superior Court, marking the fifth Quebec Superior Court judge to be appointed over the past month by federal Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould.
The appointment, coupled with the recent appointment of 16 Court of Quebec judges by the provincial government, are widely expected to make a dent in the backlog of cases that have plagued the Quebec criminal justice system, particularly since the landmark Jordan decision by the Supreme Court of Canada issued last summer. The Quebec Director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) revealed that there are 684 Jordan applications as of March 23, 2017, a figure that has tripled in the space of three months.
The latest appointment still falls short of what the Quebec government has been demanding. The provincial government asserts that it needs 14 new Superior Court judges to deal with the bottleneck in the criminal justice system.
Aline Quach, a lawyer at the Bureau d’aide juridique Maisonneuve-Mercier, was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the districts of Abitibi, Rouyn-Noranda and Témiscamingue. She replaces Justice J.F. Buffoni (Montreal), who chose to become a supernumerary judge as of February 2017. Because of internal transfers requested by the Chief Justice, this vacancy is located in Amos.Justice Quach, who graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1994 and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1996, has focused on family law and international child abduction as well as civil and administrative law.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam, Justice Quach lived in a refugee camp in Guam when she was two years old before landing in Quebec with her family as a refugee. Her parents wanted her to become a dentist, doctor or pharmacist but she had her mind set on studying law. Indeed, a profile of her jests that her very first oral argument was to convince her parents to let her register at the faculty of law at the Université de Montréal.
Justice Quach, who speaks fluent French, English, Spanish and Vietnamese has been extensively involved with the Barreau de Montréal, and served on committees focused on mentorship and ethno-cultural diversity. She is also a member of Maison Daluze, a shelter for women who have suffered violence.
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Court approves $2.5 million class action settlement agreement involving hockey coach
A $2.5 million class action settlement agreement reached between the victims of a former hockey coach and his employer, the City of Westmount, was approved by a Superior Court judge. -
Ottawa appoints four new Quebec judges
After months of stalling, the federal government has finally appointed four new Quebec Superior Court justices in the district of Montreal.
The appointments, coupled with the recent appointment of 16 Court of Quebec judges by the provincial government, are widely expected to make a small dent in the backlog of cases that have plagued the Quebec criminal justice system, particularly since the landmark Jordan decision by the Supreme Court of Canada issued last summer. The Quebec Director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) revealed that there are 684 Jordan applications as of March 23, 2017, a figure that has tripled in the space of three months.
The Quebec provincial government has asserted that it needs 14 new Superior Court judges to deal with the bottleneck in the criminal justice system. Before the four appointments, there were six vacancies at the Quebec Superior Court.
The new justices are Montreal lawyer Karen Rogers, who fills a new judicial position, Christine Baudouin who replaces Justice Marc De Wever, law professor Frédéric Bachand who replaces Justice Sylvie DeVito, and Crown Prosecutor Daniel Royer who replaces Justice Pepita Capriolo.
Madam Justice Rogers, a partner with the Montreal-based law firm Langlois Avocats, has over 28 years of litigation experience in civil and commercial matters. Over the years she has also developed a strong expertise in professional liability and discipline. Besides teaching at the Quebec Bar’s school, she has served as a mentor to young woman at the Association of Quebec Women in Finance.
Madam Justice Baudouin, a Montreal lawyer with Casavant Mercier Avocats, specializes in civil and public law involving civil liability, defamation and health law matters. She also had an active practice in labour law and professional law, and has acted in several class action matters. She is also an ethics expert, having served on the Ethics Committee of the West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre and the Research Ethics Committee of McGill University. Justice Baudouin is also involved with charities that tackle autism and women’s health.
Justice Bachand, an associate professor at the Faculty of Law at McGill University, taught legal interpretation, alternative dispute resolution, and evidence. His scholarship focuses primarily on domestic and international arbitration. Justice Bachand has served as an accredited arbitrator in both domestic and international cases. He holds doctorates from the Université de Montréal and the Université Panthéon-Assas, in addition to an LL.M. from the University of Cambridge and an LL.B. from the Université de Montréal. In recognition of his contributions to the law and to legal education, he was named Advocatus Emeritus (Ad. E.) by the Barreau du Québec and received the John W. Durnford Teaching Excellence Award at McGill University.Justice Daniel Royer, an experienced criminal lawyer, has exclusively practised criminal and penal law since his call to the bar in 1996. He practised for 15 years as defence counsel before becoming a Crown prosecutor in 2011. He has taught criminal law and evidence at O’Sullivan College of Montreal, in addition to teaching a course linked to the Gale Cup moot at the Université de Montréal.
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The charity, the businessman and the Montreal law firm that won
A charity and a businessman who sued a Montreal law firm caught in a tangled web of lawsuits after a former partner allegedly orchestrated a multi-million Ponzi scheme lost their case after Quebec Superior Court held that the lawsuits were groundless in a case that draws some light into a murky financial world.
