''Re Therrien'',
0012 S.C.R. 3, 2001 SCC 35, is a leading decision of the
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; , ) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants eac ...
on
judicial independence
Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...
.
Background
In the 1970s, Richard Therrien was convicted of assisting four 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 ...
during the
October Crisis
The October Crisis () was a chain of political events in Canada that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James Cross f ...
. Once he was released he studied law and was eventually given a pardon. Years later he applied for a position on the Quebec bench as a judge. As part of his application he disclosed his criminal record and his pardon. He was rejected based on this history. Later he applied again, this time he did not reveal his criminal history and was accepted. Once the committee discovered the existence of a criminal history they got the
Minister of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
to issue a complaint to the Quebec Conseil de la magistrature. The Conseil found the complaint to be justified and recommended that he be removed from the bench.
Therrien applied to have the decision of the Conseil to be judicially reviewed and challenged the constitutionality of the removal process under the ''Courts of Justice Act''. The Minister of Justice applied to have Therrien's applications dismissed. The
Quebec Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal of Quebec (sometimes referred to as Quebec Court of Appeal or QCA; ) is the highest judicial court in Quebec, Canada. It hears cases in Quebec City and Montreal.
History
The court was created on May 30, 1849, as the Court ...
dismissed Therrien's application for review.
Opinion of the Court
Justice Gonthier, writing for a unanimous Court, dismissed Therrien's appeal.
Gonthier dismissed the first argument by Therrien that the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction over the matter. Section 95 of the ''Courts of Justice Act'' clearly granted the right to the courts to review the decisions of the inquiry panel.
Gonthier considered whether section 95 of the ''Courts of Justice Act'', which established the requirements to remove a judge, violated the constitutional principle of judicial independence guaranteed under the
preamble
A preamble () is an introductory and expressionary statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy. When applied to the opening paragraphs of a statute, it may recite historical facts pertinent to the su ...
of the ''
Constitution Act, 1867
The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 3) (),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 1867'' (BNA Act), ...
''. He found that judicial independence did not extend so far as to require that any removal of a judge must involve an address to the legislature and so section 95 was constitutional.
See also
*
Valente v R
*
Beauregard v Canada
''Beauregard v Canada'' 9862 S.C.R. 56 was a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on judicial independence. Notably, the Court found that judicial independence is based partly on an unwritten constitution, and that some institutional independen ...
*
Mackeigan v Hickman ''Mackeigan v Hickman'', 9892 S.C.R. 796 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on judicial independence. The Court unanimously held that to require a federal judge to explain his or her decisions would violate the principle of judicial indep ...
*
R v Généreux ''R v Généreux'', 9921 S.C.R. 259 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision where the Court ruled that the military court martial system must comply with the constitutional requirements for judicial independence under section 11(d) of the Can ...
*
Provincial Judges Reference
The ''Reference re Remuneration of Judges of the Provincial Court (P.E.I.)'' 9973 S.C.R. 3 is a leading opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada in response to a reference question regarding remuneration and the independence and impartiality of pro ...
*
External links
*
case summary at mapleleafweb.com
Canadian constitutional case law
Supreme Court of Canada cases
October Crisis
2001 in Canadian case law
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