Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

rulings

  • Civil liberties organization appeals ruling that does not compel Supreme Court to translate pre-1970 rulings

    A civil liberties organization is appealing a Federal Court decision that held that the Supreme Court of Canada is not required to translate some 6,000 judgments issued between 1877 and 1969.

    In a ruling handed down this summer, Justice Denise LeBlanc held that the nation’s highest court did not breach the federal Official Languages Act (OLA) when it posted on its website its untranslated pre-1970 judgments in their original languages.

    Justice LeBlanc also held in Droits collectifs Québec v. Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada, 2026 FC 706 that the statute does not oblige the top court to translate thousands of historical judgments into both official languages because the rulings are neither “services to” nor “communications with” the public within the meaning of the OLA, and are therefore not subject to the translation obligation set out in the general provisions of Part IV of the OLA.

    Since 2021, the civil liberties group Droits collectifs Québec has lodged two successful complaints before Canada’s Commissioner of Official Languages. Raymond Théberge, the then-commissioner, determined their complaints were founded and that the online publishing of the untranslated judgments was a communication with the public by a federal institution under the OLA.

    Théberge summoned the nation’s highest court to translate all of its rulings dating before 1970 to comply with its obligations under The Official Languages Act. But the Court registrar’s office has not entirely paid heed, prompting Droits collectifs Québec to unsuccessfully request a remedy before the Federal Court under OLA s. 77.

    “French speakers need to use tools such as the judgements handed down by the Supreme Court of Canada in their day-to-day lives,” Étienne-Alexis Boucher, the executive director of Droits collectifs Québec, told the French-language newspaper Le Devoir. “So why require these judgements to be translated? It is so that ordinary people, and the community of French-speaking legal professionals, can enjoy the same benefits and have access to the same tools as their English-speaking colleagues in a country that describes itself as bilingual.”

    But Chief Justice Richard Wagner said the court does not intend to translate the more than 6,000 judgments rendered between 1877 and 1970.

    “It’s not bad faith, it’s a question of means, (and) it’s also a question of reasonableness,” he said, noting it would take about a hundred translators 10 years and between $10 million and $20 million to complete the job. “We don’t have that money.”

    Justice Wagner said that translating pre-1970 decisions would be of little utility and would only “please those who are lovers of legal cultural heritage.”

    That stance perplexes Boucher. He told me that there are several judgments, such as Saumur et al. v. Procureur général du Québec and Roncarelli v. Duplessis, that were handed down before 1969 and are still seminal today. Boucher believes that the situation discriminates against French-speaking Canadians and Quebecers whose “right to benefit” from a French translation of pre-1970 SCC rulings is not respected by an institution that should be “exemplary” and respect the rule of law.

    (more…)

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  • Top legal cases in 2024

    This is the time of year when law firms and legal publications provide a retrospective look at some of the most significant judicial rulings in 2024. Here’s some of them.

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    The nation’s highest court issued a series of important decisions that stemmed from Quebec, two of which dealt with aboriginal law.
    • Reference re An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families, 2024 SCC 5 (Aboriginal law, Constitutional Law: Division of Powers)In a decision that marks a major step in the evolution of Canadian law’s treatment of Indigenous laws and legal orders, according to legal pundits, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the constitutionality of a federal statute that affirms Indigenous peoples’ right of self-government with respect to child and family services.”On an immediate level, it is a hugely important decision for Indigenous communities across the country working to implement their own child and family welfare services and for the Indigenous children and families who interact with child and family services. More broadly, it also has important implications for how Parliament can promote “legislative reconciliation” through the passage of laws that affirm Aboriginal and Treaty rights and that incorporate Indigenous laws and legal orders.” JFK Law LLP
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    • Eurobank Ergasias S.A. v. Bombardier inc., 2024 SCC 11 (Business law)This Supreme Court ruling confirms that a Canadian bank must refuse payment to the beneficiary of a letter of credit due to fraud.”The decision also touches on important principles of private international law, such as comity and the principles applicable to the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments by Québec courts. In that vein, the SCC’s decision strongly signals that a foreign judgment’s disregard to a binding international arbitration order or award may violate public order as understood in international relations and thus lead to its unenforceability in Canada.” Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

      “The Supreme Court’s decision is a significant decision on the law of bank guarantees in Canada, which are often provided for in international contracts with arbitration clauses, especially in the field of construction. The decision expands on the principles applying to the sole exception to the obligation of banks to pay a beneficiary of a letter of credit on demand: fraud.” Arbitration Matters

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    • Société des casinos du Québec inc. v. Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec, 2024 SCC 13 (Labour law: Freedom of Association)In a favourable decision for employers, the Supreme Court held that exclusion of first-line managers from a statutory collective bargaining regime was constitutional.”Ultimately, as the Supreme Court rightly points out, the legislative exclusion of managers from the labour relations regime set out in the Labour Code makes it possible to avoid role conflicts between employer and employees in the context of their professional responsibilities (for example, in the context of collective bargaining of employees’ working conditions). This exclusion ensures managers adequately represent the employer’s interests, and thus preserves the employer’s confidence in its representatives.” Norton Rose Fulbright LLP

      “The Supreme Court of Canada dealt with a number of important issues that are significant for the law of judicial review of administrative action and for regulation more broadly.” Paul Daly, law professor at the University of Ottawa

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    • McLaren Automotive Incorporated v 9727272 Canada Inc. (Arbitration)Internal arbitration appeal mechanisms do no breach public policy, do not derogate from the jurisdiction of the courts, and do not violate the principle of proportionality, points out Gowling WLF following a decision that used international trends as part of its reasoning.”The fundamental underpinning of arbitration is freedom of contract—the right of parties to choose how to resolve their disputes. The decision in McLaren Automotive is very much rooted in that principle, and it is difficult to disagree with the approach taken by the Court.” Gowling WLG

     

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  • The art of writing judgments

    When the Associate Chief Justice of the Quebec Superior Court André Wery was nominated to the bench in 1997, he considered he knew how to write well. Admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1975, he practiced for nearly 23 years in general and commercial litigation at the firm Desjardins Ducharme, and felt that he had honed his skills by writing hundreds of opinions and just as many briefs. “I must admit that I had quite a bit of confidence in my talent to write law,” admitted Justice Wery before a packed audience.

    But shortly after being nominated, the chief justice handed Judge Wery a bunch of documents including a small handbook entitled “Ēcrire la decision” (Writing judgments). Penned by Louise Mailhot, a lawyer who served as a Quebec Superior Court judge and then for a nine-year spell from 1987 to 2006 served on the Quebec Court of Appeal, the handbook has become “a must-have” for judges writing judgments, says Wery.

    While leafing through the handbook, “I began to hold doubts about the way I wrote,” said Wery “The more I read this small book, the more I doubted myself. Up to them I took great care in using abstruse expressions, the most abstruse possible. Probably because in a subliminal way I was trying to justify the fabulous fees that I was charging my clients, saying to myself that if the client doesn’t understand it then the client would say to himself it must be worth the price I’m paying.”

    Judge Wery then realized that he basically had to “start from zero,” and learn how to write again, an exercise he begun by asking himself who was he writing for. “Who we write for determines how we do it, what words we choose and the style we choose,” observed Justice Wery.

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Law in Quebec
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