Cookie maker par excellence, Monsieur Félix & Mr. Norton, heaved a sigh of relief when Quebec Superior Court annulled a resolution adopted nearly three years ago by the its Board of Directors to dole out dividends totaling $950,000 in a ruling that inches Quebec civil law towards the acceptance of the doctrine of rectification. (more…)
Rulings
-
Appeal court takes tougher line on spousal support
When the Quebec Court of Appeal recently overturned an order that compelled a financial analyst to pay his ex-wife spousal support for an indefinite period, it caught family law experts by surprise.
Even though s. 15.2(3) of the Divorce Act, which came into force in 1985, allows judges to make an order requiring a spouse to secure and pay his ex-spouse sums for a definite period or until a specified event occurs, the appeal court has traditionally shunned from applying such orders and almost always have overturned lower court rulings that issued that time-limited support orders, particularly if children are in the picture and the spouse – usually women – have been out of the workplace for a long time.
-
Hockey legend Guy Lafleur found guilty of perjury
Hockey legend Guy Lafleur, “The Flower,” was found guilty of perjury and giving false evidence at his son’s bail hearing two years ago by a Quebec Court judge.
Lafleur, a Montreal Canadiens forward who played 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1971 until 1991 and led the Canadians to five Stanley Cups, became entangled in the legal wrangle when he vouched that his son complied with a court-ordered curfew and was at home with his parents during a weekend away from rehab.
Hotel receipts proved later that his troubled son, who suffers from Tourette syndrome, was actually at a hotel for two nights with his 16-year old girlfriend. Lafleur later admitted to condoning the hotel rendezvous, and even drove his son to the hotel.
Mark Lafleur, 24, is serving 15 months’ house arrest after pleading guilty to 23 counts of drug, drunken driving and assault charges, 13 of which involved his ex-girlfriend.
Quebec Court judge Claude Parent said he did not believe Lafleur when he testified that he simply forgot to mention his son’s escapades.
A Canadian hockey ambassador, Lafleur now faces up to 14 years in prison.
-
Quebec Court judge castigated by his peers, again
Nearly a year after being castigated by the provincial magistrates’ council for overstepping his boundries by incarcerating a police officer for 45 minutes who ostensibly lacked respect, Quebec Court Judge Claude Provost was reprimanded again by his peers.
The Conseil de la Magistrature, whose mandate includes ensuring compliance with judicial ethics, reproached Judge Provost in a 33-page ruling for behaving as a prosecutor, asking questions in an aggressive tone more fitting of a cross-examination, and failing to be objective.
-
Cardiologist who had sex with patient ordered to pay $100,000
A cardiologist who had sexual relations with a patient was ordered by the Quebec Court of Appeal to pay $100,000 in damages to a former patient after it was determined that he had unlawfully interfered with her right to dignity and physical well-being, as per the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.
In a majority decision, the Court of Appeal held that the Dr. Jean Hamel took advantage of his ex-patient’s vulnerability and the power he exercised over her to carry out actions that demonstrated “total insensitivity” towards her condition.
-
Elderly sexual offender sentenced to jail
An 82-year old man who sexually abused his two daughters received a 23-month sentence after a Quebec Court judge held that advanced age should not the only determining factor in sentencing a criminal.
Alphonse Tremblay was found guilty of indecent assault committed in 1961 when he touched the breast of his 12-year old daughter, and a few years later of doing the same – and more – with another daughter over a four-year period in the mid-sixties.
-
Surrogacy agreements illegal in Quebec
A woman who sought to be legally recognized as the mother of a child borne by a surrogate mother was thwarted by a Quebec Court judge who held that, unlike in the rest of Canada, surrogacy agreements are illegal in Quebec.
“This child does not have a right to maternal filiation at any cost,” said Judge Michel Dubois in his 11-page ruling.
-
Canada’s longest trial again in the news
Nearly 15 months after the Quebec Court of Appeal griped about the legal war of attrition that has lasted more than a decade in the case against a former accounting giant and its partners over the infamous collapse of Montreal real-estate firm Castor Holdings Inc., the highest court of the province recently dismissed yet another appeal.
Categories: Accounting, Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Quebec Superior Court, Rulings, White-collar crimes -
Federal government overstepped its authority, says Quebec Court of Appeal
In a ruling hailed as a victory for federalism, the Quebec Court of Appeal struck down dozens of provisions of the federal Assisted Human Reproduction Act it deemed to be unconstitutional because it encroached on provincial jurisdictions.
“If we want to demonstrate that federalism is capable of working, then it must be capable of respecting the jurisdiction of provinces – this was a wise ruling,” remarked Jocelyne Provost, the Quebec Crown prosecutor who successfully argued the case before the appellate court.
-
High court refuses to hear Moroccan immigration case
The Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear the case of two Moroccans who accused the Quebec government of discrimination in its handling of immigration applications from the North African country. As is usually the case, the high court did not give reasons for its decision.
Khadija Goumbarak and Mohamed Tayouri filed applications for a Québec selection certificate in the class subject to the list of occupations in demand. Between the time they filed their applications and the time those applications were considered, the list was amended, and the occupations for which they were allegedly qualified were withdrawn from the list.
Their applications were rejected because they also could not meet the requirements in the “employability and occupational mobility” class. Goumbarak and Tayouri filed a motion for declaratory judgment to quash the decision of the Quebec Minister of Relations with Citizens and Immigration on the grounds that they had, inter alia, acquired rights at the time they filed their applications and were the victims of discrimination on the basis of their Moroccan citizenship.
The Superior Court dismissed the motion. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.
I’ve written about the Quebec court of appeal ruling, and you can read it here.
-
Quebec Court of Appeal shuns strict approach towards sex offender registration
Trial judges considering a Crown’s request to apply an order that requires an offender to comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act (“SOIRA”) should consider on a case-by-case basis the impact registration would have on the offender while weighing public interest to determine gross disproportionality, the Quebec Court of Appeal found in a ruling that steers away from a more rigid interpretation of reporting obligations.
In a 32-page ruling, dealing with four concurrent cases that challenged the constitutionality of s.490 of the Criminal Code, the court held that a stiff interpretation of what constitutes public interest would be unfair as it would be almost impossible for a convicted sex offender to establish that, if the order were made, the impact on them (including their privacy or liberty) would be grossly disproportionate to the public interest in protecting society.
-
Minigolf is a sport, rules tribunal
Mini-putt, or minigolf as it also known, has joined the ranks of bowling and billiard, and is now officially considered to be a sport in Quebec.
In an 11-page ruling, the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec overturned a judgment made by a government agency who refused to give a Montreal entrepreneur a liquor licence under the pretext he was not operating a “sports centre.”
-
Cuckold loses bid to strike his name off child’s birth certificate
A man who discovered that he was not the biological father of a child lost his bid before the Quebec Court of Appeal to strike his name off the child’s certificate and invalidate his bond of filation with the child.
The Rimouski businessman, who had a seven-year common-law relationship that lasted between December 1998 and June 2005, discovered from acquaintances, shortly after being separated, that it was unlikely he was the father of the child born in 2002. On January 2007, a DNA test concluded that, with a probability greater than 99.99 per cent, that he was not the biological father of the child.
-
Blogger condemned to pay $125,000 for defamation
An exiled Senegalese journalist, now residing in Montreal, has been ordered to pay the son of the president of the Republic of Senegal $125,000 for defaming him in a blog widely republished by African media outlets.
In a blog run by the well-respected French-based publication Nouvel Observateur, Souleymane Jules Diop portrayed Karim Meïssa Wade, in a series of postings that were published between July and November 2005, as a criminal who appropriated or diverted public funds, was involved in money-laundering, and resorted to threats and physical intimidation.
-
Immigration Act cannot be invoked to fight extradition
A Hungarian couple of Roma origin lost their bid to overturn an extradition order issued by the Federal Minister of Justice after the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act cannot be invoked to contest an extradition order. (more…)