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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Telecom giants must pay millions following SCC’s refusal to hear appeals
Telecommunication giants Bell Mobility and Rogers Communications must pay millions of dollars to clients who paid excessive cancellation fees after the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear their appeals. -
Delays in criminal trials cut by nearly half in Quebec
A 20-year old man from Western Quebec who was accused of assault causing bodily harm while he was a teenager is the latest to have benefitted from a stay of proceedings due to unreasonable delays.More recently still, a week after Khalid Gakmakge was refused a stay for a 2011 murder he is accused of committing, a Sri Lankan man charged with killing his wife in Quebec five years ago has been deported after the charge against him was stayed because his constitutional right to a timely trial was delayed.
Ever since the Supreme Court of Canada’s landmark R. v. Jordan decision a year ago, approximately 1,766 motions to stay because of unreasonable delays have been filed across the country, with 204 having been granted and 333 dismissed, according to figures obtained by Canadian Press. The remainder are either before the courts, forsaken by defence, or resolved on other grounds.
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Bars lobbying prime minister over appointment of next chief justice
The tussle over the appointment of the new Chief Justice of the nation’s highest court has begun, with both the Bar of Montreal and the Canadian Bar Association penning letters in a bid to sway Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.Not surprisingly the new head of the Montreal Bar is calling on Trudeau to respect “tradition” and appoint a Supreme Court judge from Quebec as the top court’s next chief justice.
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In-house counsel see salaries climb to 4.3% but are still unhappy
The average annual salary of in-house counsel has risen over the past year yet massive numbers would not hesitate to scamper off to a new job, revealed a recent report.The median annual salary increase rate for all positions across industries climbed by 4.3 per cent, up a fraction from 2016, according to the BarkerGilmore 2017 In-House Counsel Compensation Report. More than 1,500 in-house counsel in the United States responded to the online survey that was conducted from March to May 2017.
But that modest increase was not uniform across all sectors. In-house lawyers working in the tech sector experienced the largest upturn, with salaries up by 4.9 per cent, followed by those working in the professional services segment, with salaries rising by 4.8 per cent. At the tail end, in-house counsel employed by the financial sector and industrial and manufacturing received a paltry salary increase of 3.7 per cent, while those employed by the energy sector fared slightly better with a 3.9 per cent increase.
Regardless of the salary increase, in-house counsel are not happy campers. A little less than half, or 43 per cent, believe their compensation is below or significantly below than their peers working elsewhere, with litigators reporting the greatest dissatisfaction. Those working in real estate and banking or finance however expressed the highest levels of satisfaction, with over 20 per cent reporting compensation or significantly above average.
It’s no wonder then that at least one in three in-house counsel across all sectors assert there is a high or very high chance that they would consider a new job because of compensation issues. The figures are even more dismal when broken down by sector:- 47 per cent working in the energy sector say there is a high or very chance they will look elsewhere;
- 44 per cent working in consumer, industrial and manufacturing, and technology sectors would do the same;
- Those figures drop to 39 per cent working in financial, 38 per cent in life sciences and professional services, and 36 per cent in healthcare.
The report also reveals compensation averages for general counsel, managing counsel, and senior counsel. And the gap between those working in the public and private sector is staggering. The size of the gap decreases however as the position level decreases.
General counsel working for public companies, in the healthcare and technology sector, were the best paid, coming in at $857,343 and $837,500. General counsel working in the professional services sector were the lowest paid, with compensation standing at $412,900 for those employed by public companies and $272,500 in the private sector. All told, the variation swings from a low of $272,500 for in-house working in the private sector to a high of $495,000. Compensation for general counsel working for public companies was far more generous, ranging between $412,900 and nearly $860,00.
Managing counsel fared even worse, with compensation ranging from $246,000 to $407,000 for those working in the private sector to $276,000 to $407,000 in the public sector.
Senior counsel, the rank-and-file lawyers in a legal department, earned no more than $300,000, regardless of whether they worked in the private or public sector. The highest paid jobs for senior counsel were in life sciences, ranging between $227,500 and $281,927, while the lowest were those in the professional services, between $175,000 and $209,219.
“Many leaders overlook the fact that creating a competitive advantage…requires not only an in-depth evaluation of the current legal spend, but a detailed comparison with specific data and information pertaining to counsel compensation,” warned the report. “Likewise, organizations must hire and/or retain the talent necessary to consistently improve efficiencies and find ways to maximize the business’ competitive advantage.”
With great numbers of in-house counsel seeking greener pastures, it appears that leaders and organizations have their work cut out for them.
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Desjardins Financial Security Services fined $200,000 by regulator
Desjardins Financial Security Services Inc. has been fined $200,000 and costs of $25,000 following a settlement agreement reached with the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada over its failure to conduct a reasonable supervisory investigation on one of its former representatives who misappropriated $3.7 million from several clients. -
Appeal court postpones ruling that would have suspended Indian status registrations
The Quebec Court of Appeal granted a safeguard order today that temporarily postpones a court ruling that would have suspended new Indian status registrations as of July 4th.
Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Nicholas Kasirer granted the Attorney General of Canada leave to appeal from a June 27th decision that refused to extend for a second time the suspension of its August 3, 2015 judgment that found that the principal registration provisions of the Indian Act were invalid because it breached s.15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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New Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs appointed
Marc Giroux, who has expressed some reservations about Bill C-337, the bill that would compel judges who hear sexual assault matters to take mandatory legal education, has been appointed as Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs, announced Federal Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Giroux, a 1989 graduate of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ottawa and three years later from the university’s Faculty of Law, has worked at the Office of Federal Judicial Affairs for the past 12 years, holding the positions of both Deputy Commissioner and Interim Commissioner.
The Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs (FJA) was created in 1978 under an Act of Parliament of Canada to safeguard the independence of the judiciary and put federally appointed judges at arm’s length from the Department of Justice. It also prepares a list of judicial vacancies, oversees the application process, supports the 17 judicial advisory committees that assess candidates, and prepares for the minister a list of eligible candidates from which to appoint. The commissioner and the office independent from the Department of Justice.
Tabled by interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose in February, Bill C-337 or the Judicial Accountability through Sexual Assault Law Training Act, appears to be a solid idea but has raised concerns over the independence of the judiciary.
Giroux, while deeming it to “completely fair and appropriate, in light of certain cases, that questions be asked about the training of judges in sexual assault law,” believes however that “the issue at stake is finding out the best way to achieve the objective.”
In testimony before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women this April, Giroux points out that the bill as it currently stands would have those who want to become judges complete education in the area of sexual assault law before they are appointed. As an administrator of the judicial appointments process, his office normally receives over 500 applications per year generally. This year however it has received 700 applications in less than six months.
“If education is to be provided before applicants become judges—that is, during the assessment process—and to a large number of candidates, our concern is that it will be more difficult to ensure they are properly educated, and that such training will not be exhaustive enough,” said Giroux.
“The important priorities of, on the one hand, ensuring an efficient assessment process for candidates, and on the other, ensuring that candidates are properly educated in the area of sexual assault law may come into conflict, and one or both of these priorities may suffer as a result. The effects in essence could be twofold: the assessment of candidates may be delayed, and on the other hand, the education candidates receive on sexual assault law may be less than adequate.”
Giroux believes that it may be best to provide such education once judges are newly appointed. The course could “perhaps” be approved by the Canadian Judicial Council.
Giroux has also shown that he has some mettle.
In 2014 Giroux, while FJA’s acting director, was involved in an imbroglio with the Public Service Commission, an independent agency charged with making appointments to the public service. But those powers can be delegated, in which case the PSC retains a supervisory function. The PSC granted the Federal Judicial Affairs its appointment and appointment-related powers — until it took away. And that in turn became the subject of a decision by the Federal Court of Canada.
Here’s what happened. The FJA has since 1996 coordinated the involvement of the Canadian judiciary in international exchanges and in judicial and court reform projects abroad. But in April 2011 the program was in danger of collapsing after the director of its international programs division unexpectedly quit.
Giroux, then the FJA’s acting director, approached Oleg Shakov, an Ottawa consultant who had done a similar job for the FJA from 2005 to 2009 and had the necessary skills and experience. Shakov initially declined but relented after another FJA official, Nikki Clemenhagen, proposed a one-year appointment. The new position was created, with an “English essential” language requirement. Shakov’s appointment became permanent in December 2012.
In 2013, the investigative branch of the Public Service Commission got involved after it conducted a routine audit of the Federal Judicial Affairs and “discovered” possible irregularities in the appointment process. After a documentary review, and interviewing several people, the investigation concluded that both Giroux and Clemenhagen acted improperly by tailoring the position’s language requirements to fit Shakov’s unilingual profile, and by opting for a non-advertised process without justification. As a result, the PSC revoked Shakov’s appointment “even though he had no hand in it,” suspended Giroux’s and Clemenhagen’s appointment powers, and rescinded the FJA’s delegated authority to reappoint Mr. Shakov to a different position.
But in 2015, days before Christmas, Federal Court of Canada Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer overturned the decision, holding that the PSC’s decision was unreasonable because it “failed to understand the quandary the FJA was in.”
“The choices made by the Acting Commissioner came within his broad managerial discretion, as intended by Parliament in enacting the Public Service Employment Act,, considering the situation with which he was faced,” said Justice Tremblay-Lamer in Shakov v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 FC 1416. “His actions were an entirely reasonable short-term solution immediately available – and indeed it seems to have been the only possible decision.”
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New federal director of Public Prosecutions appointed
Federal Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould announced the appointment of Kathleen Roussel, a former criminal lawyer, as the next director of Public Prosecutions.
Roussel, who graduated from the University of Ottawa’s French Common Law Program in 1992 and called to the bar in 1994, practised criminal law in Ottawa before joining the Department of Justice in 2001 as senior Counsel and director of the Canadian Firearms Centre Legal Services. Roussel then served as senior General Counsel and executive director of the Environment Legal Services Unit at the Department of Justice Canada (2005-2008) until her appointment as deputy director of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in April 2013.
Roussel, a native of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, will serve as the new director for the next seven years, in accordance with the Director of Public Prosecutions Act.The Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), created on December 2006, with the coming into force of the Director of Public Prosecutions Act, is an independent prosecution service mandated to prosecute offences under the jurisdiction of the Attorney General of Canada. The PPSC reports to Parliament through the Attorney General of Canada.
Here is a video of Roussel responding to questions about her appointment as director of Public Prosecutions before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
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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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UN panel calls on Canada to appoint extractive sector ombudsperson
An independent, well-resourced office for an ombudsperson that can investigate allegations and enforce orders on Canadian extractives’ overseas operations should be established by the federal government to provide effective remedies in a timely and inexpensive manner, recommends a United Nations working group on business and human rights. -
Federal and provincial governments need to demonstrate “stronger engagement” towards duty to consult, says UN panel
Federal and provincial governments “need” to demonstrate a “stronger engagement” towards conducting meaningful consultations with indigenous communities, according to a United Nations working group on business and human rights.
The duty to consult takes on added weight given that extensive mining and oil and gas extraction in several indigenous territories is “accompanied” by significant adverse environment impacts that affect the right to health, added the UN panel.
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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
