Probe by judicial council committee recommends Quebec judge be removed from office

MONTREAL — A committee of the Canadian Judicial Council recommended in a report released Monday that Michel Girouard be removed from his position as a Quebec Superior Court justice for misconduct and failing to perform his duties in office.

The report from the council’s inquiry committee was the second investigation stemming from allegations from a police informant in 2012 who said Girouard bought drugs from him in 2010, when the judge was still a lawyer.

In April 2016, the judicial council ruled Girouard could return to sit as a judge despite the council’s own inquiry committee recommending he be removed from office months earlier.

The federal and provincial justice ministers jointly requested the council conduct a second inquiry into the allegations, primarily into the truthfulness of the judge’s testimony under oath and his integrity.

“The committee found that the misconduct particularized in each of those allegations … is extremely serious, and mandates a recommendation for removal from office,” read the report.

The council said it would consider its committee’s report and give Girouard the chance to make written submissions.

After that, the council said it would make a final recommendation on Girouard’s fate to the federal justice minister.

Girouard was named to Superior Court in September 2010 after practising law for a quarter-century in the Abitibi region in northwestern Quebec.

The Canadian Press