Showing posts with label Justice Robert Beaudoin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice Robert Beaudoin. Show all posts
Friday, March 14, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Rancourt files application to Supreme Court to obtain his right to an impartial court
An Ontario superior court judge had strong personal, family, emotional, and contractual financial ties to a party intervening for the plaintiff in [the] case, and also to the law firm representing the party in court, and did not disclose any of these ties. This party was also the employer of the plaintiff in the lawsuit, and funded the plaintiff’s litigation. The judge was tasked with determining the propriety of the party’s funding of the plaintiff, which was done with public money. The judge’s ties made it inconceivable that he would rule against the party. When the defendant discovered the judge’s ties and presented the evidence, the judge lost decorum, threatened the defendant with contempt of court, and recused himself, but refused to consider whether there was an appearance of bias, and continued to release decisions. The judge’s in-court reaction and walkout further confirmed his ties with the party in the lawsuit. The defendant raised the matter with six more judges, up to the court of appeal [for Ontario], but all of them refused to duly consider and properly apply the facts. As a result, all the decisions of the judge in the lawsuit stand to this day, even the decisions he released after recusing himself.
--Summary, Memorandum of Argument, Application Book, page-34
Denis Rancourt has filed and served an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, for leave to appeal from the dismissal of his appeal at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, appealing from the lower court dismissal of his champerty motion to end the defamation action funded by the University of Ottawa with public money.
The full application book (with arguments and evidence), dated January 6, 2014, is posted HERE, and alternatively HERE.
The whole matter is very disturbing. The judge recused himself for real bias moving forward, while refusing to make a judicial determination of an apparent bias that would have negated all his past decisions, then continued releasing findings from the bench and written decisions after the events said to have caused his real bias. And seven judges have refused to make a proper consideration on merits of the complaint.
Rancourt is arguing that the Supreme Court of Canada has a Charter obligation to grant leave to appeal:
Thus, in the facts of this case, the applicant’s right to an impartial court has been infringed or denied in the courts below, such that s. 24 of the Charter can be satisfied, in application and principle, solely if the [Supreme] Court grants the instant leave to appeal. Without the Court’s intervention and express directives, the infringement or denial of the applicant’s right to an impartial court will stand without ever having been properly heard on merits, and the right to judicial impartiality will continue to be denied in Canada’s lower courts, by the same means as in the present case, and in other ways.
--Paragraph 41, Memorandum of Argument, Application Book, page-48
The Executive Director of the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) has provided an affidavit in support of the application: See Application Book, starting at page-290.
OCLA also heads a campaign against the public funding of the defamation lawsuit, entitled: "Public Money is Not for Silencing Critics: University of Ottawa must end its financing of a private defamation lawsuit".
If an egregious and documented case of apparent bias of a judge cannot be properly heard on merits in any court, then there is something wrong in Canada. It would mean that we do not have the legal system that many imagine and hope that we have.
Given the egregious and factual nature of this case, it would mean that circumventing complaints of judicial bias is a systemic problem in Canadian courts: If there is even only one Mack Truck in the living room then this necessarily implies that there is an entrance to the living room large enough to accommodate the truck's drive-in.
Court documents in the action and its appeals are HERE.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Supreme Court Registrar Roger Bilodeau refuses to accept a Motion to a Judge to review the Registrar's own decision
On February 13, 2013 Rancourt served and filed THIS Motion to a Judge of the Supreme Court of Canada to review Supreme Court Registrar Roger Bilodeau's earlier decision to not accept Rancourt's Application for Leave to Appeal a lower court decision to deny Rancourt of a judicial determination of apparent bias of lower court judge Robert Beaudoin.
Today, Rancourt received the Registrar's February 22, 2013 decision (LINK) to not accept to file Rancourt's Motion to a Judge to review the Registrar's own decision.
The original Application for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is HERE.
Today, Rancourt received the Registrar's February 22, 2013 decision (LINK) to not accept to file Rancourt's Motion to a Judge to review the Registrar's own decision.
The original Application for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is HERE.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Rancourt files Motion to a Judge, Supreme Court of Canada, to set aside Registrar's order
The motion asks a judge of the Supreme Court of Canada to set aside an order of the Registrar of the Court.
On January 25, 2013, the Supreme Court Registrar, Roger Bilodeau, Q.C., wrote THIS decision to not even assign a court file number to Rancourt's January 7, 2013 application for leave to appeal to the Court.
Rancourt argues that the Registrar's decision/order was contrary to both the Supreme Court Act, and the Rules of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Rancourt argues that the Registrar cannot simply "not accept" an application for leave to appeal on the basis of the Registrar's speculation about the Supreme Court's jurisdiction, which is a substantive matter argued in the application itself.
The opposing parties, Joanne St. Lewis (represented by Richard Dearden) and the University of Ottawa (represented by Peter Doody), had written to the Registrar to argue that the Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear Rancourt's application, and to ask the Registrar to "not accept" the application.
The application was about a litigant's Charter and natural justice rights to an impartial judicial process. Specifically, the right to have a complaint of actual or apparent judicial bias heard by the court where the complaint is made. The application seeks to appeal a decision by Justice Peter Annis to refuse leave to appeal decisions of Justice Robert Beaudoin on the grounds of apparent bias.
Links to all court documents in the on-going St. Lewis v. Rancourt legal case are HERE.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Rancourt files application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada
These efforts were put to a close by the November 29, 2013 decision of Justice Peter Annis to not grant leave to appeal to the Divisional Court.
Since Rancourt's bias complaint was never heard on its merits, and since impartiality of the judiciary is a foundation of the common law, Rancourt believes his Charter rights to be heard and to equality before and under the law were violated.
Since the possibility of appeal was finally barred using rules of court which allow such judicial discretion, Rancourt concludes that the said rules of court are unconstitutional, and he therefore seeks leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.
If the Supreme Court of Canada does not grant leave to appeal then it will mean that, in Ontario, litigants can make complaints of bias against judges and the complaints can continue to be finally barred by the court in which the complaints are made, and never heard on their merits. And there is no recourse.
Does that sound like something that should occur in a democratic society?
Rancourt's full application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court was served and filed today, and is posted: HERE.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Judge rejects ex-professor’s allegations of judicial bias in defamation suit
 |
| Justice Robert Beaudoin |
Related: April 2012 Ottawa Citizen article that gave rise to the apprehension of bias: HERE-LINK.
Related: Transcript of the court hearing at which Justice Beaudoin recused himself is HERE-LINK.
Related: Recent blog article on A Student's-Eye View: HERE-LINK.
Friday, July 27, 2012
“Ambush” caused judge to withdraw from civil suit, lawyers say -- media article, St. Lewis v. Rancourt
The next day, The Ottawa Citizen updated their article to this (and added a picture):
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
