Quebec judge stays 989 tax charges
Trial delays cited in construction magnate’s case
MONTREAL • Given the delays in getting the case to trial, a Quebec Court judge has stayed nearly 1,000 tax-evasion-related charges laid against construction magnate Paolo Catania, his company and his associates.
According to Le Devoir, Quebec Court Judge Magali Lepage rendered the decision on Thursday, bringing the lengthy case against Construction Frank Catania and several of its directors to an end six years after the charges were laid.
The defence had asked for a stay of proceedings last October, invoking the Supreme Court’s Jordan ruling. The ruling set time limits on trial delays, including that trials in provincial court must be concluded within 18 months, with some exceptions.
“Even after calculating the delays attributable to the defence, we were still way, way above (the limit),” one of the defence lawyers in the case, Paul Ryan, said on Friday.
Ryan said Thursday’s decision came as a great relief to all of the accused.
“With the omnipresence of the media, even if you have the presumption of innocence in Canada, when your name is plastered all over the place, there’s a social judgment that happens,” Ryan said.
“It’s been six years these people have been living with that weight. They’ve already paid a price.”
Revenu Québec had filed 989 tax-fraud-related charges against the company and its directors in 2013. They faced $12.5 million in fines.
The charges alleged they filed false declarations and illegally obtained tax credits between 2005 and 2009. Catania and associates also faced possible jail time. All had pleaded not guilty.
“Our investigators are doing colossal work on the ground,” a Revenu Québec spokesperson had said at the time. “We’re talking about thousands of hours of analysis of documents to make a solid case.”
Asked Friday if he felt the decision could undermine the public’s confidence in the justice system, given the staggering number of charges all dropped at once, Ryan said everyone has a right to be prosecuted in a fair and just way and within a reasonable delay.
“For the court to come to the conclusion to stay more than 900 charges, it must have done a detailed analysis of the case and determined that, under the circumstances, it was in society’s best interest to end the proceedings,” he said.
In her judgment, Ryan said, Lepage alluded to the fact that Revenu Québec may have overreached with the number of charges in the case.
Contacted for comment on Friday, the agency said it was aware of the ruling and was considering its options.
“We are not commenting any further for the moment,” a spokesperson said.