Appeal concerning whether Quebec's municipal court system, which permitted part-time municipal judges to continue practising law subject to statutory safeguards, infringed the right to a hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal.
The Court held that the challenge was properly characterized as one of institutional impartiality rather than traditional judicial independence from government.
Applying the reasonable apprehension of bias standard, the Court found that while practising law is per se incompatible with judicial functions absent safeguards, the oath of office, judicial immunity, ethics code, recusation obligations, and statutory conflict rules sufficiently minimized the risk.
The impugned provisions did not violate s. 11(d) of the Canadian Charter or s. 23 of the Quebec Charter.
