Quebec legal aid lawyers picket in some regions

Montreal courthouse (Palaise de Justice). (Daniel J. Rowe/CTV News)

Legal aid lawyers in several regions of Quebec picketed courthouses Thursday morning as negotiations to renew their collective agreement with Quebec drag on.

The lawyers are on strike in the Montreal-Laval, Laurentides-Lanaudière, Montérégie and Gaspésie-Bas-Saint-Laurent-Îles-de-la-Madeleine regions. They are scheduled to return to work on April 17.

As a result, legal aid cases have been postponed, and appearances may be delayed.

Also, since Montreal offers telephone and video court services for all of Quebec, during holidays such as Easter, other regions may be affected.

"In the regions at the moment, there is panic in the police stations. They don't know who's going to pick up the phone when they're going to arrest someone," said Justine Lambert-Boulianne, president of the Montreal and Laval legal aid lawyers' union, in an interview outside the Montreal courthouse.

The main point of contention is pay parity with Crown attorneys.

"We argue the same cases, before the same judges, in the same courts as the prosecution. We deserve the same treatment,'' said Elisabeth Maillet, president of the South Shore Community Legal Centre lawyers' union.

The parties were still negotiating late Wednesday night, and discussions are expected to continue despite the strike.

For its part, the Treasury Board Secretariat indicated earlier this week that the Legal Services Commission is the interlocutor for negotiations with the unions representing legal aid lawyers, although the Treasury "is working closely with the Legal Services Commission to enable it to negotiate fair agreements with all the unions, including those representing lawyers."

As for the actual case of parity with Crown attorneys, Anne-Hélène Couturier, spokesperson for the Government Negotiations Office, stressed that "the Quebec government must ensure consistency and fairness with all unions, including the legal services component. Setting compensation is a complex exercise, and many factors come into play, such as job evaluation, internal equity, pay equity, total compensation, the bargaining regime, etc."

"Unfortunately, it is the people who need it most who will suffer from the lack of legal aid services if the president of the Treasury Board does not reach an agreement with these workers, whose task goes far beyond just pleading. They do a real job of education and accompaniment. Mme Lebel must recognise this," said Liberal justice critic André A. Morin.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on April 6, 2023.