St. Lewis v. Rancourt -- Court Reporter Transcript of the Entire Trial

There were 15 days (or partial-days) of hearings in the trial in the case Joanne St. Lewis v. Denis Rancourt, including all trial motions and jury selection.

The first day was a hearing of a defendant's (Rancourt) recusal motion, heard on May 7, 2014. The last day of trial was the judge's reading of his reasons in making a permanent injunction against the defendent, on June 6, 2014.

The entire official court reporter's transcript of all the hearings in the trial is available HERE.

Rancourt and a few other participants spoke in French, and the court's language-interpretation from French to English (done on the fly) is included in the transcripts.

APPEARANCES / WITNESSES

Justice Michel Z. Charbonneau, trial judge

Richeard Dearden, plaintiff's lead lawyer

Anastasia Semenova, plaintiff's lawyer

Peter Doody, lawyer for the University of Ottawa, opposing the defendent

Denis Rancourt, self-represented defendant

WITNESSES FOR THE PLAINTIFF

Joanne St. Lewis, plaintiff

Allan Rock, president of the University of Ottawa

Camille Nelson, expert witness

Charlynne MacCharles, plaintiff's counselor

Bruce Feldthusen, former dean of common law section, University of Ottawa

Denis Laberge, plaintiff's brother-in-law

Jacqueline Yvette Beckles, department of justice lawyer and plaintiff's friend

John Curie, law professor, University of Ottawa

Robert Major, former VP-Academic, University of Ottawa

Saron Gebresellasi, law student, University of Ottawa

Sileen St. Lewis, plaintiff's mother

 

* * *

The CanLII interlocutory, trial, and appeal rulings in the case are here:
http://www.canlii.org/en/index.html#search/id=st.%20lewis%20v.%20rancourt

Links to all/most court-filed documents in the case are here:
http://rancourt.academicfreedom.ca/background/stlewislawsuit.html

An appeal hearing has been listed at the Court of Appeal for Ontario for June 26, 2015, at 10:30 AM. See links to factums (arguments) on appeal in THIS blogpost.

On-going story of an application to the Supreme Court of Canada

When is it OK in a democratic society for a court to ignore a complaint of bias of the court? Is it acceptable for the rules of the court to permit circumventing a bias complaint? Can a judge refuse to hear and determine a complaint about his/her own apparent bias? Is being heard on a bias question in order to overturn decisions of a judge a Charter right? Will the Supreme Court of Canada find these questions of sufficient importance to hear the appeal?

At least the last of these questions will be answered in the coming months. Here is how the story has unfolded to date:

• 2013-01-07::: Rancourt's Application for Leave to Appeal filed to the Supreme Court of Canada, to appeal from the November 29, 2012 decision of Justice Peter Annis to not grant an appeal regarding the defendant's complaints about reasonable apprehension of bias. Full-Application-SCC.

• 2013-01-14 to 2013-01-25::: Letters to and from the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada::: 2013-01-10-Dearden-to-Registrar, 2013-01-14-Rancourt-to-Registrar, 2013-01-14-Doody-to-Registrar, 2013-01-15-Dearden-to-Registrar, 2013-01-15-Rancourt-to-Registrar, 2013-01-25-Registrar-to-Rancourt.

• 2013-02-13::: Motion to a Judge, filed to the Supreme Court of Canada, motion to set aside Registrar's January 25, 2013 order. Full-Motion-SCC.

• 2013-02-14::: Letter of St. Lewis via Richard Dearden to SCC Registrar, asking that Registrar "not accept" Rancourt's Motion to a Judge. 2013-02-14-Dearden-to-Registrar.

• 2013-02-22::: Letter of U of O via Peter Doody to SCC Registrar, echoing Dearden's request to "not accept" Rancourt's Motion to a Judge. 2013-02-22-Doody-to-Registrar.

• 2013-02-22::: Letter of SCC Registrar Roger Bilodeau to Rancourt, not accepting Motion to a Judge for filing. 2012-02-22-Registrar-to-Rancourt.

• 2013-03-04::: Ontario Civil Liberties Association's letter to the Chief Justice of Canada, about SCC Registrar's conduct. LINK. Followed by THIS, and then THIS.

Stuff happens in the corridors at the Supreme Court...?

• 2013-04-08::: Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada changes his mind, accepts to file Rancourt's Application for leave to appeal: Registrar's letter.

• 2013-04-09::: Rancourt re-files his Application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada: Full-Application-SCC.

• 2013-04-11::: Supreme Court of Canada Registry letter to Rancourt -- Materials filed, File Number assigned: Registry's letter. 

• 2013-04-19::: Supreme Court of Canada responds to the Ontario Civil Liberties Association about Registrar's conduct: SCC-letter-OCLA.*

• 2013-05-09::: U of O submissions for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada: UofO-Mem-Arg-SCC.

• 2013-05-09::: St. Lewis's submissions for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada: StL-Mem-Arg-SCC.

• 2013-05-21::: Rancourt's REPLY for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada: DGR-Reply-SCC.

*This bullet was added on June 20, 2013.

Rancourt files Motion to a Judge, Supreme Court of Canada, to set aside Registrar's order

On February 13, 2013, Denis Rancourt filed THIS "Motion to a Judge" to the Supreme Court of Canada.

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.