‘I lost my patience,’ judge tells panel
Hearing probes courthouse guard’s complaint he was insulted
Quebec Court Judge Suzanne Vadboncoeur uttered a conditional apology before an inquiry panel on Friday, conceding it was possible she insulted a special constable inside the parking garage at the Montreal courthouse.
The five-person panel, part of Quebec’s Conseil de la magistrature du Québec, heard Vadboncoeur’s testimony during the final stage of a hearing into a complaint filed by Special Constable Robert David Jean, a guard who works at the courthouse. As part of its responsibilities, the council supervises the conduct of judges.
Jean alleged the judge insulted him on Dec. 8 after he and another special constable had difficulty opening a garage door that temporarily prevented Vadboncoeur from exiting the courthouse.
“It is accurate to say I lost my patience. If I said things that hurt people I am profoundly sorry,” the 66-year-old judge told the panel composed of three judges, a lawyer and a member of the public.
On Dec. 8, Vadboncoeur attended a Christmas cocktail at the Montreal courthouse held for judges, their assistants and other personnel.
After the cocktail, the judges headed to Auberge Le Saint-Gabriel, a nearby restaurant in Old Montreal, for a planned Christmas dinner in a reserved room.
While responding to questions from her lawyer, Jean-Claude Hébert, Vadboncoeur said she had one glass of white wine at the cocktail and two glasses of red wine, followed by coffee, during the dinner.
After the dinner she walked back to the courthouse and got into her car parked in a section reserved for judges in a sub-basement level of the courthouse.
As she pulled up to the garage door of the parking lot she noticed two cars in front of her’s waiting for it to open.
After waiting a couple of minutes, Vadboncoeur said on Friday, she got out of her car to see what the problem was.
Jean explained to her that there was a technical problem and that he and another special constable were trying to fix it.
The judge returned to her car and exited it a second time as she grew impatient. She noticed then that another car was behind hers. She approached the person inside the car, who turned out to be Quebec Court Judge Vincenzo Piazza, one of the people who organized the Christmas dinner.
“I told him we were imprisoned in the garage,” Vadboncoeur said.
As part of the investigation into Vadboncoeur’s behaviour that night, Piazza provided a statement to Sylvain Trudel, a lawyer and an
investigator for the council.
According to a summary of Piazza’s statement, Vadboncoeur spoke to the other special constable and threatened to file a complaint against Jean.
Piazza said he overheard Vadboncoeur refer to Jean as thick, incompetent, and possibly “a goddamned a--hole.” Another witness reported hearing her call Jean “a goddamned a--hole.”
“Did I say ‘thick’ it is possible, very possible,” she said. “Did I say ‘goddamned something?’ I don’t know.”
She also conceded later on that she might have referred to Jean as “incompetent” while she waited impatiently for the garage door to open.
The other constable testified, during an earlier hearing, that he could hear Vadboncoeur screaming inside her car during the episode even if her car windows were closed.
“A judge’s reprehensible behaviour reflects badly on the magistrature as a whole,” Trudel said in his final argument before the panel.
The panel will deliberate before it makes any recommendations to the council.
The Journal de Montréal reported on the incident in June, before evidence in the investigation was made public.
The Conseil de la magistrature filed a complaint with police and, on Wednesday, the Sûreté du Québec seized the computer of the reporter who broke the story in an effort to find out how he obtained the information.
The newspaper is currently challenging the SQ’s request to search the computer.