Quebec judge limits language law requiring English decisions be translated

A Quebec court judge has declared inoperable a portion of the province’s language law that requires English-language court decisions to be immediately translated into French.

Dennis Galiatsatos wrote in a May 17 decision the requirement for courts to simultaneously provide a French translation of a written decision rendered in English will slow down the legal process for anglophone Quebecers accused of a crime.

A modification to the Quebec language charter scheduled to come into effect on June 1 states that a French translation must be provided “immediately and without delay.”

Galiatsatos says translations can take weeks or months to produce and approve, a process he adds will delay verdicts and force people who opt to be tried in English to wait longer to learn their fate than those who are tried in French.

“By design and in practice, its net effect is that all anglophone Quebecers who are charged with a criminal offence — and who elect to have their trial in English — will be subjected to a longer waiting period to obtain their verdict than similarly situated francophones would. This is no trivial distinction,” he wrote.

The judge said the words “immediately and without delay” are incompatible with the language rights in the Criminal Code and should not apply in criminal procedures.

Galiatsatos said he decided to rule on the matter on his own initiative, prompted by the case of Christine Pryde, who is scheduled to be tried in June on charges of dangerous driving, impaired driving and criminal negligence in the 2021 death of cyclist Irene Dehem.

He said the new amendment to the law risks delaying the judgment in a case that has been ongoing for more than three years.

“This would imply that Ms. Pryde, the Crown, Irene Dehem’s