Council recommends Quebec judge be removed from office

OTTAWA — The Canadian Judicial Council is recommending that a Quebec Superior Court justice be removed from office.

A committee of the council found in a report last November that Michel Girouard attempted to mislead and conceal the truth during a review of drug-related allegations against him.

That report was the second investigation stemming from allegations from a police informant in 2012 who said Girouard bought drugs from him in 2010, when the judge was still a lawyer.

The council issued a statement Tuesday to say it agreed with last fall’s findings.

It said it concluded that the judge’s integrity has been fatally compromised and that public confidence in the judiciary warrants a recommendation he be removed from office.

The matter is now in the hands of federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.

In April 2016, the judicial council ruled Girouard could return to sit as a judge despite a recommendation from the council’s inquiry committee that he be removed from office months earlier.

The federal and provincial justice ministers jointly requested the council conduct a second inquiry into the allegations, primarily into the truthfulness of the judge’s testimony under oath and his integrity.

Girouard was named to the Superior Court in September 2010 after practising law for a quartercentury in northwestern Quebec.