Quebec judge facing possible removal confronts new evidence of cocaine use

MONTREAL — At a hearing to determine whether Quebec Superior Court Judge Michel Girouard should be removed from the bench, a woman with whom he used to socialize has described him as a heavy cocaine user.  The woman, the former common-law spouse of a close friend of Girouard, testified before a Canadian Judicial Council inquiry committee in Quebec City this month that she was present on three occasions when Girouard and her former partner, Alain Champagne, used cocaine in the 1990s.

Identified only by her initials, L.C., she came forward last July after the council announced it would conduct an unprecedented second inquiry into Girouard’s alleged cocaine use when he practiced law in Val d’Or, Que.

A first committee had recommended that he be removed, but the council, which is chaired by Supreme Court Justice Beverley McLachlin and which reviews the conduct of federally appointed judges, deemed him fit to remain a judge. The federal and Quebec justice ministers intervened last June to request a second inquiry.

L.C. testified that Champagne, the father of her two children, was a close friend and business associate of Girouard. She said she first met Girouard at a party at his house in Val d’Or in 1992. After the party, she said, Champagne seemed wired, and when she asked why, he told her he had done cocaine with Girouard.

Another time, she testified, she and Champagne met Girouard and his wife in their Montreal hotel room before going out for dinner. At one point, the three others went into the bathroom, leaving L.C. alone. “We were going for dinner, and basically they all went to go do a line,” she said. More drugs were consumed over dinner, she said.

The third incident occurred at Girouard’s house, she said, in the middle of the day when the couples’ small children were present. Champagne, Girouard and Girouard’s wife disappeared, and when they returned she could see signs of drug use inside their noses. “It was all white,” she testified.

L.C. said she did not use cocaine herself but was familiar with the symptoms of its use from her time working as a bartender at a Montreal club.

She said she saw Girouard about a dozen times over the years, including during visits to Champagne in jail after he was charged with cocaine trafficking. Champagne was convicted but the Court of Appeal ordered a new trial in 1995. There is no record of a second trial being held.

Robert Cloutier, an RCMP inspector and a childhood friend of L.C., told the committee of a conversation he had with her sometime before 2008, when she asked whether he knew Girouard from his time stationed in Val d’Or. He testified that he told her he did, and she replied, “Oh my God! He takes coke.” Cloutier said he told her that he was already aware of that.

He testified that when he arrived in Val d’Or in the late eighties, municipal police officers informed him Girouard was a cocaine user. He said he was shocked because he was a young police officer and thought everyone in the justice system was “honest.” He said he told his supervisor at the RCMP, and he was already aware of Girouard’s reputation as a drug user.

Basically they all went to go do a line

Girouard is facing allegations that he misled the initial committee with his testimony, in particular when he said he had never used illicit drugs. The current hearing has seen police surveillance video, also played at the first inquiry, of what investigators alleged was Girouard buying drugs at a Val d’Or video store owned by a local drug dealer.

Girouard testified this month that the back-office transaction, during which he was handed a small folded piece of paper, was a simple payment for films he had purchased. The folded paper related to a legal file and did not contain drugs, he said.

Girouard swore “on the lives of my four children” that he never used cocaine with Champagne. Asked by New Brunswick Chief Justice Ernest Drapeau, who is presiding the review committee, whether he had ever used cocaine, Girouard said, “Definitely not since I became a lawyer.” He said he had “experimented” with drugs while in university but he could not recall whether he ever used cocaine.

Girouard’s wife also testified, denying L.C.’s allegations that she had snorted cocaine with her husband and Champagne. She said she has never seen signs of drug use by Girouard, to whom she has been married for 28 years. She attributed the stories of his use to small-town jealousy of a successful lawyer.

She said the past five years, since allegations first surfaced against Girouard, have been hell for their family. “It has broken our integrity, our dignity,” she said. “Everything we built has fallen down.”

Lawyers for Girouard and the independent counsel for the inquiry will submit their written arguments next month.

Source: theprovince.com

By: GRAEME HAMILTON