Rulings

12 Aug 2020

Failed justice

Errors and omissions by defence counsel, the Crown prosecutor and even the trial judge were not “determinative” after a man who sought to withdraw his guilty plea to sexual assault failed to establish that he sustained subjective prejudice, ruled the Quebec Court of Appeal.

The unusual case has spurred at least one criminal lawyer to state that the justice system failed the appellant and his family while another held that the Quebec Court of Appeal issued a fair and reasonable decision that heeded guidance by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 2018 leading decision in R. v. Wong, 2018 SCC 25, [2018] 1 S.C.R. In Wong, the SCC held that guilty pleas must be informed.

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Categories: Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: sexual assault
22 Jun 2020

Appeal court reaffirms financial watchdog’s discretionary power

Quebec’s financial watchdog cannot be compelled to exercise its discretionary power to conduct an investigation into the “moral character” of individuals seeking a money-services business license as it is at the “very heart” of its specialized jurisdiction, held the Quebec Court of Appeal.

The decision will likely have a reach beyond the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and extend to Quebec administrative deciders such as the Autorité des marchés public, a rather new entity responsible for overseeing and managing public contracts between enterprises and Quebec government entities, according to litigators. The ruling may even make it far more tougher for individuals to challenge administrative deciders such as the AMF over their determinations concerning moral character.

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Categories: Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), Quebec financial watchdog
5 Jun 2020

Hiring process was not tainted by discrimination, rules Quebec appeal court

A public transport agency did not infringe a Montrealer’s right to equal access to employment based on handicap without discrimination when it ended the process to hire him as a bus driver for health reasons, held the Quebec Court of Appeal.

In the latest of a series of growing number of Quebec appeal court decisions that applied the landmark Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark Vavilov framework, the appellate court ruling underscores the importance for employers to buttress their case with solid and thorough medical evidence to rebut the presumption of prime facie discrimination, according to employment and labour legal experts.

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Categories: Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: discrimination
25 May 2020

Federal court judge declares retroactive record suspension eligibility requirements unconstitutional

Following in the footsteps of British Columbia and Ontario, a Federal Court judge declared retroactive record suspension eligibility requirements to be unconstitutional, opening the door to thousands of offenders across the country to be eligible for a pardon.

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Categories: Criminal law, Federal Court of Canada, Rulings

Tags: Criminal Records Act, pardons, record suspensions
12 May 2020

Owners of pyrrhotite-damaged homes win long-standing legal battle

More than 800 homeowners and 18 business owners of pyrrhotite-damaged buildings won a long-drawn out legal battle after the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that ordered a Canadian engineering giant, concrete owners, construction contractors, and a geologist to pay more than $200 million, including interest.

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Categories: Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: construction law, pyrrhotite
5 May 2020

Mandatory minimum sentence declared unconstitutional for Aboriginal accused

A Court of Quebec judge declared the minimum mandatory sentence of four years imprisonment for discharging a firearm while being reckless to the life or safety of another person as unconstitutional and inoperative for an Aboriginal offender.

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Categories: Criminal law, Federal Court of Canada, Rulings

Tags: Gladue, mandatory minimum sentences
14 Apr 2020

Photo radar class action dismissed by Quebec appeal court

A proposed photo radar and red light camera class action, dismissed by the Quebec Court of Appeal, was doomed to fail because the class representative was convicted of speeding when she chose to pay the fine for speeding, according to class action experts.

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Categories: Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: photo radar
14 Feb 2020

Right to privacy trumps parental authority, rules court

A father who demanded that his 16-year old son hand in a copy of his passport as well as other personal documents learned the hard way that Charter-protected rights can trump parental authority.

Parents still remain gatekeepers. They still have the rights and duties of custody, supervision and education of their children. Parental authority still gives parents the right to make all decisions necessary to their children’s well-being.

But there are limits.

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Categories: Family law, Quebec, Quebec Superior Court, Rulings

Tags: parental authority, right to privacy
10 Feb 2020

Provincial tax authority cannot invoke Crown interests in access to information matters, rules commissioner

A produce retailer that was targeted by provincial tax authorities won a legal battle after the Quebec Access to information tribunal held that Revenu Quebec must turn over information to the company as “Crown priority” cannot be invoked by the agency in access to information matters.

The decision, a welcome development that took the tax legal community by surprise, appears at first glance to hand taxpayers, particularly those who have been charged or are facing criminal charges, with a tangible means to obtain information that the provincial tax authority may be reluctant or unwilling to share, according to tax lawyers.

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Categories: Accounting, Quebec, Rulings, Tax

Tags: access to information
8 Feb 2020

Quebec appeal court upholds criminal negligence conviction

A Quebecer who was found guilty of criminal negligence causing the death of a passenger in a speed boat he was operating lost his bid to overturn his conviction after the Quebec Court of Appeal dismissed his argument that the victim’s death was caused by the boat’s faulty design.

In a 25-page unanimous ruling that examined the reach of incriminating statements made to police while not being detained and the actus reus and mens rea required for criminal negligence causing death, the appeal court held that the verdict was not unreasonable or tainted by an error of law. The appellant was ordered to serve his 32-month prison sentence.

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Categories: Criminal law, Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: criminal negligence
2 Jan 2020

Under fire Quebec appeal court rejects bid to suspend contested secularism bill

A divided Quebec Court of Appeal, grappling with a series of controversial complaints against its Chief Justice, has refused to stay sections of the province’s secularism bill even though it plainly acknowledges that the controversial ban on religious symbols is causing irreparable harm to some people.

The decision comes on the heels of a series of complaints lodged against Quebec Court of Appeal Chief Justice Nicole Duval Hesler before the Canadian Judicial Council over bias she has allegedly demonstrated against the province’s secularism law.

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Categories: Legislation, Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: secularism bill
29 Dec 2019

Damages award in Quebec comic’s discrimination case called ‘dangerous’

A controversial Quebec Court of Appeal ruling that ordered a comedian to pay $35,000 in damages to another entertainer for infringing his right to the safeguard of his dignity without discrimination after mocking his disability may lead to a chilling effect because the decision provides scant guidance over when the line is crossed, human rights law and media law experts said.

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Categories: Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: discrimination, Freedom of expression
17 Dec 2019

Administrative adjudicators can be removed from cases in deliberation, rules court

In an unusually public and legal tiff between two arbiters of Quebec’s disciplinary process, Quebec Superior Court ruled that the chair of Quebec’s disciplinary council of presidents has the power to remove cases, even in deliberation, from administrative adjudicators who take too long to render judgment.

The precedent-setting ruling, the first that examined the scope of powers in the hands of the chair, follows in the footsteps of a pan-Canadian trend by the courts to hold that the long-standing principle that adjudicators decide must give way to timely decision-making to ensure access to justice, respect for natural justice and the protection of the public, according to disciplinary law experts.

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Categories: Disciplinary law, Legal business, Quebec Superior Court, Rulings

Tags: administrative adjudicators
2 Dec 2019

Racial profiling cases winding its way through Quebec courts

A Quebec man who was issued a ticket for accusing a police officer of being a racist after being stopped was acquitted by a municipal court judge, the latest in a series of cases dealing with racial profiling that recently wound its way through Quebec courts.

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Categories: Access to justice, Class actions, Public law, Quebec, Rulings

Tags: racial profiling
26 Nov 2019

Landmark decision issued by Quebec appeal court over the freedom of peaceful assembly

Less than a month after the Quebec Court of Appeal struck down a Quebec City municipal bylaw that compelled organizers of public demonstrations to submit their plans and itinerary to city police, the City of Montreal officially shelved its own controversial protest bylaw.

The landmark decision, commended as a “genuine advance” on the “least judicially explored freedom,” is the first decision by a Canadian appellate court that comprehensively examines the scope of the freedom of peaceful assembly (2c) as a separate Charter right, distinct from the freedom of expression (2b) or association (2d), according to legal experts.

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Categories: Canadian Charter, Public law, Quebec, Quebec Court of Appeal, Rulings

Tags: demonstrations, freedom of peaceful assembly, protests