Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

  • Failure to protect solicitor-client privilege leads to acquittal of alleged Mafiosi

    Two alleged Montreal Mafia leaders were acquitted of gangsterism and drug trafficking charges after Quebec Superior Court excluded wiretap evidence gathered by a joint police task force because they failed to put in place sufficient measures to prevent the interception of conversations between lawyers and clients.

    In a ruling that will almost “certainly” be used by Quebec police forces as a wiretap procedural guideline, Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Downs provides guidance on electronic surveillance, castigates police for failing to do enough to protect solicitor-client privilege, and warns that it would be imprudent to view his ruling as an inducement to consider law firm as safe havens to conspire and plan crimes, according to criminal lawyers.

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  • Quebec Court of Appeal provides comprehensive guidance over Jordan in two rulings

    A Montreal man who was charged with killing his wife but whose case was the first Quebec murder case to be stayed following the landmark Jordan ruling will not face a new trial, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled after issuing a concurrent and “very important” decision that clarifies and provides practical guidance on the application of the landmark Jordan decision.

    A five-member bench held that the Crown’s appeal was moot in the case of Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham, charged with second-degree murder in July 2012 after his wife was found dead in the couple’s home with knife wounds to her neck in 2012, following his deportation on July 2017. He spent 56 months behind bars while awaiting trial, prompting Quebec Superior Court Justice Alexandre Boucher to stay the proceedings on April 2017. The Crown was in the process of appealing that decision when Thanabalasingham was ordered deported to Sri Lanka.

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  • Quebec Court of Appeal harmonizes securities law with other provinces

    The Quebec Court of Appeal eliminated a tactical advantage that could have emerged by launching national class actions in secondary market misrepresentation cases in the province after it held that Quebec securities rules were designed to be harmonized with provincial securities legislation across the country as a matter of substantive law.

    In a closely watched decision by class action and securities experts, the Quebec appellate court overturned a lower court ruling and found that parties seeking leave to launch an action for secondary market misrepresentations under the Québec Securities Act (Act) are not entitled to compel a public issuer defendant to disclose documents and information for the purpose of the leave proceedings.

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  • Terms of contract usurp good faith, holds Quebec Appeal Court

    Former employees of an asset management firm who claimed that they were unfairly bought out just before the company was sold lost a legal battle after the Quebec Court of Appeal held that the duty to act in good faith does not mean that a party to a contract must impoverish itself to enrich the other.

    In a ruling that will likely reverse a growing trend by the courts to broadly interpret the notion of good faith, the Quebec appeal court reaffirms that the terms of a contract determines the rights of parties and that it almost always trumps the duty to act in good faith, a finding that will reassure corporate lawyers and the business world alike, according to securities lawyers.

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  • Elderly pedophile to serve sentence in nursing home

    An elderly man who was found guilty of two counts of gross indecency will be allowed to serve his sentence of two years less one day of imprisonment in the community after the Quebec Court of Appeal held that it was “an exceptional case that required an exceptional solution.”

    In a decision welcomed by penal and elderly law experts, the Quebec Appeal Court yields pointed guidance over the sentencing of infirm elderly offenders at a time when Canada’s prison population is becoming greyer.

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  • Revenue Quebec can issue demand letters to third parties outside of the province

    The Quebec Court of Appeal has ruled the province’s tax authority can issue demand letters and request the disclosure of financial information from third parties outside the province to determine whether a taxpayer is subject to the province’s tax laws.

    The precedent-setting ruling will potentially have a substantial impact as it is widely expected to spur Revenue Quebec to issue more demand letters to third parties outside the province even though questions remain over the scope of the ruling, tax lawyers say.

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  • French language still needs protection rules Quebec appeal court

    A bid to overturn Quebec’s sign law by a group of anglophone merchants suffered yet another setback after the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld two lower court rulings that held that the French language is still vulnerable in Quebec and continues to need protection even though it has made “modest progress” in recent decades.

     

     

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  • Court awards former Quebec paramedics $1.2M over subway scare

    Montreal’s transit authority has been ordered by Quebec Superior Court to pay two former paramedics more than $1.2 million for a scare that left them unable to work in their profession.

    The ruling highlights one of the singular situations where an injured worker can bring a civil suit even though one of the cardinal principles behind Quebec’s occupational health and safety regime is that workers cannot bring a civil liability suit against their employer because of the injury.

    “This is an interesting ruling because civil actions for damages to recuperate losses that exceeds the benefits received under the Act are very rare,” remarked Laurence Bourgeois-Hatto, a Montreal labour and employment lawyer specializing occupational health and safety matters.

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  • Quebec Bar and Ombudsman want to make it easier for alleged victims of sexual assault

    The Quebec Bar and the Quebec Ombudsman want to make it easier for alleged victims of sexual assault to gain access to the legal system and are calling on the provincial government to follow in the footsteps of the overwhelming majority of Canadian provinces and eliminate the prescription period for civil actions in cases of sexual assault.

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  • Errors by trial judge prompts new trial for woman convicted of killing her two daughters

    Errors by trial judge prompts new trial for woman convicted of killing her two daughters

    A Quebec woman, who was found guilty of first degree murder of her two young daughters in 2013, will face a new trial after the Quebec Court of Appeal found the trial judge made a series of glaring errors when instructing the jury, partly because of language differences.

    In a ruling that was warmly embraced by criminal defense lawyers, the appeal court reiterated the importance of vigorously applying the concept of beyond a reasonable doubt, provided guidance over the use of video interrogations, highlighted the importance of judges responding to queries by juries, and chastised the trial judge over the confusing directives she gave over the mental state of the accused. All of which prompted more than one criminal lawyer to wonder why Quebec Superior Court Justice Carol Cohen, who usually handles civil cases, was handed such a high-profile criminal case.

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  • Suspected PlexCoin founder sentenced to two months in prison

    Dominic Lacroix, a Quebec City businessman believed by Quebec’s financial watchdog and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to be behind PlexCorps, a controversial cryptocurrency start-up accused of fraudulently selling up to $15 million of tokens, was sentenced to two-month jail term and fined $10,000 for contempt of court.

    “The defendants fully understood the orders but intentionally and voluntarily disrgarded them,” said Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc Lesage in a 15-page ruling dated December 8th. “The Court finds that this is a case of exteme case of contempt and bad faith by the defendants.”

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  • U.S. SEC files charges against PlexCorps

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an emergency asset freeze against PlexCoin, a controversial “fast-moving” and “purported” initial coin offering (ICO) that has raised up to $15 million from thousands of investors since August 2017.

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  • Red zones violate rights of marginalized people, study says

    “Red zones ” or “no-go” orders, conditions of release imposed by police or the courts in bail or probation orders that prohibit an individual from entering or being found within a specific place or area, have become increasingly pervasive but are costly, ineffective and violate people’s rights, concludes a new study.

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  • Quebec cannabis bill disappoints employers

    Employers are disappointed that the Quebec government failed to provide new rules and guidance under its recently unveiled legal framework for the consumption, sale and distribution of marijuana, according to employment and labour lawyers.

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  • University can recoup pension monies

    Carleton University won the right to reclaim nearly $500,000 in pension benefits made to a former political science professor who was missing for years before his remains were found in the woods near his Quebec home after the Quebec Court of Appeal held that the pension plan plainly states that the benefits ceased when the beneficiary died.

    The ruling, which essentially upheld a lower court ruling but not for the same reasons, appears to have broadened the scope of several Civil Code of Quebec provisions by applying a “generous and liberal interpretation” to unjust enrichment and the legal presumption surrounding absentees, according to legal experts.

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Law in Quebec
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