Quebec language law: Judge facing ethics complaint over ruling regarding English trials [Video]

A rights group is accusing a Quebec judge of politicizing the courts after he challenged the constitutionality of the province’s language law that requires immediate French translations of English-language judgments.

The non-profit group Droits Collectifs Québec (DCQ) says Court of Quebec Justice Dennis Galiatsatos put himself into a conflict of interest with his ruling last month, alleging he violated three articles of the Judicial code of ethics. The DCQ filed an official ethics complaint last week with Quebec’s Judicial Council, the Conseil de la magistrature.

On May 17, Justice Galiatsatos raised concerns in his 17-page ruling that an amendment to Quebec’s French-language Charter would cause “undue delays” to trials held in English because of a new requirement for English rulings to be translated “immediately and without delay.” The amendment was set to come into force on June 1, 2024, but his ruling rendered it “inoperable” because it would slow down the judicial process for anglophones, according to the ruling. 

He raised …