National Post (National Edition)
Post-it note focus of judge’s hearing
QUEBEC • The inquiry to determine whether Quebec Superior Court Justice Michel Girouard should be removed from the bench for cocaine use was nearing the end of its second day Tuesday before the first evidence against him was heard in public.
And even then, it resembled more an arts and crafts exercise than proof of any wrongdoing.
Éric Caouette, a supervising sergeant with the Sûretédu Québec, was on the stand, and he had brought along a selection of small Ziploc bags filled with flour to demonstrate the appearance of various quantities of cocaine sold on the market in Val d’Or, Que.
There was the quartergram bag, the 1.7-gram bag, the 3.5-gram bag and the 7-gram bag, all essentially small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Then Marie Cossette, the independent counsel who is presenting the case against Girouard to a Canadian Judicial Council inquiry committee, handed Caouette a yellow post-it note and asked him to conceal the bags.
They all fit inside the rolled-up paper, and he could
He stated that Yvon Lamontagne had slipped him a post-it note containing the words ‘I’m being wiretapped’
even fold the post-it note with the bags inside. The significance of the exercise will become more apparent if a key video is entered as evidence, something Girouard and his lawyers are trying hard to prevent.
The video, recorded two weeks before Girouard was named to the bench in Septe mber 2010, shows an exchange between him and Val d’Or drug dealer Yvon Lamontagne in the office of Lamontagne’s video store.
Girouard testified Monday that the meeting was to discuss the tax case of Lamontagne, a client who has since been convicted of drug trafficking. His lawyers argued that publicly divulging the recording of the meeting, made on the store’s security camera and seized by police during a major drug bust, would violate Girouard’s privacy rights. They also argued it would be a violation of solicitor-client privilege.
The three-member in - quiry committee presided by Richard Chartier, the Chief Justice of Manitoba, rejected Girouard’s privacy argument Tuesday morning, concluding he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy at the video store. Cossette, who is presenting the case against Girouard, had noted that Lamontagne’s door was open during their meeting and that it is common knowledge that such businesses are equipped with security video systems.
Girouard faces five counts before the committee, but the count relating to the meeting with Lamontagne is considered the most important because it occurred while his application to become a judge was pending. The other counts relate to Girouard’s alleged purchase and consumption of cocaine during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Documents made public by the judicial council say the 45-minute meeting seen on the silent video included what a provincial police investigator “concluded with certainty” was a drug deal.
Girouard denies the allegation and, in 2013, he told officials with the judicial council that the meeting was to discuss Lamontagne’s back taxes and for Girouard to pay for previously purchased videos, “the nature of which he preferred to keep out of his file.”
What he received from Lamontagne was not drugs but a post-it note with an important message, he said.
“He stated that Yvon Lamontagne had slipped him a post-it note containing the words, ‘ I’m being wiretapped, I’m being tailed,’ as well as the maximum amount he was willing to pay Revenue Canada and the name of the person who was prepared to lend him money to pay the additional assessment from Revenue Canada, the judicial council documents say.
The review committee ordered the public to leave the hearing room Tuesday as it watched the contentious video and heard testimony from Girouard to determine whether the meeting was covered by solicitor-client privilege.
A decision on admissibility has been put off until Thursday, when Lamontagne is scheduled to testify.
In documents submitted to the review committee, Cossette says the allegations against Girouard “are capable of showing that Justice Girouard’s ethics, honesty and integrity must be questioned and that his impartiality and independence are at risk now that he has been appointed to the bench, including in cases involving the Crown or members of criminal gangs.”
The breach would be serious enough to warrant his removal from office, she wrote.
If the committee allows the video to be entered as evidence, the contents of a simple post-it note could be key to determining the judge’s fate.