Jean-Pierre Bonin (1942 – June 18, 2010) was a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

in the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

province of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

Early life and career

Bonin was born in

Woonsocket Woonsocket ( ), is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 43,240 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the sixth largest city in the state. Being Rhode Island's northernmost city, Woonsoc ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

, in the

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. He studied law at the Universite de Montreal and was called to the

bar of Quebec The Bar of Quebec () is the regulatory body for the practice of advocates in the Canadian province of Quebec and one of two legal regulatory bodies in the province. It was founded on May 30, 1849, as the Bar of Lower Canada (). History The begi ...

in 1967. He completed a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in law in 1978 and was appointed as the chief crown prosecutor for

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

the following year. In 1978, Bonin was the crown prosecutor against Jacques Cossette-Trudel and

Louise Lanctôt Louise Lanctôt (born March 24, 1947) is a Canadian convicted kidnapper and writer. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Lanctôt is a political activist for the cause of Quebec independence from Canada. Louise Lanctôt was an active member of the Ra ...

, former members of the

Front de libération du Québec The (FLQ) was a Quebec separatist terrorist group which aimed to establish an independent and socialist Quebec. Founded sometime in the early 1960s, the FLQ conducted a number of attacks between 1963 and 1970,Reich, Walter. ''Origins of Terror ...

(FLQ) who pleaded guilty to the kidnapping of

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

diplomat

James Cross James Richard Cross (29 September 1921 – 6 January 2021) was an Irish-born British diplomat who served in India, Malaysia and Canada. While posted in Canada, Cross was kidnapped by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) duri ...

. Over the next four years, he prosecuted separate cases against former FLQ members Alain Allard, Nigel Barry Hamer, Marc Carbonneau, and Yves Langlois. Bonin also prosecuted the trial of Claude Vermette, a

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

(RCMP) officer who was charged with committing illegal activities in the line of duty, in the early 1980s. The trial drew attention to several illicit RCMP activities in Quebec during the 1970s. The case ended in a mistrial after

Quebec premier The premier of Quebec ( (masculine) or eminine is the head of government of the Canadian province of Quebec. The current premier of Quebec is François Legault of the Coalition Avenir Québec, sworn in on October 18, 2018, following that ...

René Lévesque René Lévesque ( ; August 24, 1922 – November 1, 1987) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 23rd premier of Quebec from 1976 to 1985. He was the first Québécois political leader since Confederation to seek, ...

criticized a trial witness during a

legislative A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers ...

debate.

Judge

Bonin was appointed as a Quebec

Sessions Court A Sessions Court or even known as the Court of Sessions Judge is a court of law which exists in several Commonwealth countries. A Court of Session is the highest criminal court in a district and the court of first instance for trying serious of ...

judge in July 1983. In 1986, he oversaw a high-profile preliminary hearing of five persons accused of attempting to blow up Air India Flight 112. (This is not to be confused with the more prominent trials that took place concerning the destruction of

Air India Flight 182 Air India Flight 182 was a passenger flight operating on the Montréal–Mirabel International Airport, Montreal–Heathrow Airport, London–Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi–Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumb ...

.) Bonin was later promoted to head the criminal division of the

Court of Quebec The Court of Quebec () is a court of first instance in the Province of Quebec, Canada. The court has jurisdiction over civil matters, criminal and penal matters as well as over youth matters The court sits in administrative matters as well, a ...

in September 1988. In June 1996, he was appointed by the

government of Quebec The Government of Quebec (, ) is the body responsible for the administration of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. The term is typically used to refer to the executive of the day (i.e. Minister of the Crown, mini ...

to hold a closed-door inquiry into the

Sûreté du Québec The (SQ; , ) is the State police, provincial police service for the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. There is no official English name, though the agency's name is sometimes translated as Quebec Provincial Police ...

(SQ), following widespread accusations of corruption in the force. The inquiry ultimately became ground down in acrimony among the various parties, and Bonin resigned in October 1996 after a burglary in his office. The government of Quebec subsequently called a public inquiry into the matter. In 1998, Bonin oversaw a preliminary hearing into charges against Canadian

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leader

Maurice Boucher Maurice Boucher (21 June 1953 – 10 July 2022) was a Canadian gangster, convicted murderer, reputed drug trafficker, and outlaw biker. He was once president of the Quebec Nomad (motorcycle club membership), Nomads chapter of the Hells Angels M ...

. Bonin oversaw several high-profile cases in his last years. In 2004, he was the presiding judge who oversaw prominent Montreal businessman Irving Grundman's guilty plea in a municipal corruption case. Four years later, Canadian

mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

leader

Nicolo Rizzuto Nicolo Rizzuto (; February 18, 1924 – November 10, 2010) was an Italian-Canadian crime boss and founder of the Rizzuto crime family, the Sicilian Mafia organization based in Montreal, Quebec. Rizzuto was born in Cattolica Eraclea, Sicily, It ...

admitted before Bonin's court that he was a member of a criminal organization. As the result of a plea bargain, Rizzuto received only a suspended sentence and probation; Bonin later imposed a $209,000 fine on Rizzuto in a separate case involving

tax evasion Tax evasion or tax fraud is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to red ...

. Bonin delivered a verdict in 2007 that recognized a small street gang as a criminal organization. This was generally regarded as reducing the threshold for achieving convictions in

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

trials.

Death

Bonin died at age sixty-eight in 2010, after suffering a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

while attending a conference in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. He was remembered as an extremely hard working judge and an institution in Quebec's legal system.Sue Montgomery, "Dedicated judge was an 'institution'; Many touched by death of Jean-Pierre Bonin," ''Montreal Gazette'', 19 June 2010, A8.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonin, Jean-Pierre 1942 births 2010 deaths Judges in Quebec People from Woonsocket, Rhode Island Université Laval alumni