Quebec Court of Appeal


The Court of Appeal of Quebec 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 of Queen's Bench - or Court of King's Bench depending on the gender of the current Monarch serving as Canada's head of state. The Court's judges had jurisdiction to try criminal cases until 1920, when it was transferred to the Superior Court. In 1974, it was officially renamed the Quebec Court of Appeal., the Quebec Court of Appeal building on Notre-Dame Street in Old Montreal.

Jurisdiction

Under the Code of Civil Procedure of Quebec and the Criminal Code, someone wishing to appeal a decision of the either the Superior Court of Quebec or the Court of Quebec generally has 30 days to file an appeal with the Court of Appeal. Final judgments in civil cases are appellable as of right if the amount in dispute is at least $60,000 in dispute to be heard. The Court of Appeal will overrule a lower court decision if it is "incorrect" on a question of law or if a "palpable and overriding error" was made on questions of fact or mixed fact and law. The Court of Appeal almost never hears witnesses, and lawyers' oral and written submissions are kept to strict maximum lengths. A normal case will take several months from filing of an appeal to a decision by the Court of Appeal, but the Court may hear an appeal within hours or days in an emergency.
Appeals of Court of Appeal decisions are heard before the Supreme Court of Canada, which is located in the federal capital of Ottawa, Ontario, but only if leave to appeal is granted either by the Supreme Court of Canada or by the Court of Appeal. Notwithstanding this, in very limited circumstances, a decision of the Court of Appeal may be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada as of right.
The ability of the Supreme Court of Canada, which has six of its nine justices from common law provinces and only three from the civil law province of Quebec, to overrule the Court of Appeal of Quebec has occasionally been raised as a political issue by Quebec nationalists, who worry that it erodes Quebec's distinctive legal culture.
Perhaps the most significant decision of the Court of Appeal was Morgentaler v R, in which the Court of Appeal overturned a jury decision acquitting Montreal Doctor Henry Morgentaler of performing an abortion, despite Morgentaler publicly admitting that he had done so. This was the first time in Canada that a jury acquittal had been replaced by a conviction, on appeal, rather than a new trial being ordered. The Court of Appeal was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1975. Subsequently, Parliament amended the Criminal Code removing the ability of provincial courts of appeal to substitute jury acquittals with convictions.

Composition

As a "Superior Court" under section 96 of the Constitution Act, 1867, Court of Appeal judges are appointed by the Governor-General of Canada on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada. Appointees must be members of the Quebec Bar, but need not have had previous experience as a judge. However, appointees almost always have some experience as a judge, usually on the Superior Court of Quebec. The quorum of the Court of Appeal of Quebec for appeals on the merits is generally three judges, but the Court has also sat five judges in exceptional circumstances, and in one recent extremely exceptional case, the Court sat seven judges. However, for Applications seeking leave to appeal and most other applications in the course of the proceeding, quorum is composed of only one judge of the Court of Appeal.
Originally, the Court had four judges, including the Chief Justice. It is currently constituted of 22 judges, including the Chief Justice. By statute, fifteen of the judges must reside in Montreal, while seven must reside in Quebec City.

Current Judges

PositionNameAppointedNominated ByPosition Prior to Appointment
Chief JusticeManon SavardApril 26, 2013 Harper Quebec Superior Court
JusticeMarie-France BichSeptember 24, 2004MartinProfessor at Universite de Montreal Faculty of Law
JusticeGuy GagnonSeptember 27, 2009HarperCourt of Quebec
JusticeDominique BélangerNovember 2, 2012HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeManon SavardApril 26, 2013HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeMartin VauclairDecember 17, 2013HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeGeneviève MarcotteApril 10, 2014HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeMark SchragerJune 13, 2014HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeRobert MainvilleJuly 1, 2014HarperFederal Court of Appeal
JusticeMarie-Josée HogueJune 19, 2015HarperLawyer at McCarthy Tétrault
JusticePatrick HealyOctober 19, 2016J. TrudeauCourt of Quebec
JusticeSimon RuelJune 21, 2017J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeJocelyn F. RancourtJune 21, 2017J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeSuzanne GagnéNovember 29, 2017J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeGenevieve CotnamJune 26, 2018J. TrudeauCourt of Quebec
JusticeStephen HamiltonAugust 29, 2018J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeStéphane SansfaçonJanuary 31, 2019J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeMichel BeaupréMarch 8, 2019J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeLucie FournierJune 22, 2019J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court
JusticeBenoit MooreJune 22, 2019J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court

supernumerary judge
PositionNameAppointedNominated ByPosition Prior to Appointment
JusticeYves-Marie Morissette*November 7, 2002ChretienProfessor at McGill Law
JusticeFrançois Doyon*May 7, 2004MartinCourt of Quebec
Assistant chief prosecutor
JusticeJulie Dutil*September 24, 2004MartinQuebec Superior Court
JusticeFrançois Pelletier*June 6, 2000ChretienQuebec Superior Court
JusticeJacques Chamberland*June 10, 1993MulroneyDeputy Attorney General for Quebec
JusticeFrance Thibault*December 1, 1998ChretienQuebec Superior Court
JusticeLouis Rochette*February 1, 2000ChretienQuebec Superior Court
JusticeJacques Dufresne*May 13, 2005MartinQuebec Superior Court
JusticeJean Bouchard*October 1, 2009HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeJacques J. Levesque*November 2, 2012HarperQuebec Superior Court
JusticeAllan R. Hilton*September 26, 2003ChretienQuebec Superior Court
JusticeClaudine Roy*August 17, 2017J. TrudeauQuebec Superior Court

Former Justices