Jacques Delisle, retired judge convicted in wife's 2009 death, has died

Former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Jacques Delisle walks to the courtroom, Thursday March 14, 2024 at the hall of justice in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

The Quebec Court of Appeal announced the death of retired judge Jacques Delisle.

He was 89.

"It is with great regret that we inform you of the death, at the age of 89, of retired justice Jacques Delisle. Justice Delisle was appointed to the Superior Court on July 18, 1983, and to the Court of Appeal on June 26, 1992, where he sat until his retirement on May 1, 2009. Justice Delisle consistently championed the proper use of the French language in legal drafting," reads a statement published Monday on the court's website.

"He was a renowned jurist, and the quality of his decisions attested to his genuine passion for the law. On behalf of all the justices of the Court, Chief Justice Manon Savard expressed her most sincere condolences to the family and friends."

The statement made no mention of the judge pleading guilty in March 2024 in the shooting death of his wife, 71-year-old Marie Nicole Rainville.

Her death in 2009 in Quebec City was initially classified as a suicide, but after a lengthy police investigation, Delisle was charged with first-degree murder, a first for a judge in Canada. He was convicted in 2012 and spent almost nine years in prison before he was freed in 2021 after the federal justice minister at the time ordered a new trial based on a review of the evidence and concluding there was likely a miscarriage of justice.

On March 14, 2024, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received one day behind bars after being credited for the time he had already served in prison.

Prior to the plea, his lawyer had told the court that he left a loaded gun next to his wife so that she could end her life after she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed and a broken hip that robbed her of her ability to enjoy life.

The Crown prosecutor did not believe Delisle's version of events, and suggested that the former judge shot his wife in order to avoid a costly divorce and that he had wanted to move in with his former secretary, with whom he was having an affair.

The prosecution agreed to avoid a second trial in exchange for the plea deal.

Delisle, a Montreal native, retired from the appeal court in April 2009.

- With files from The Canadian Press