The Lawyers Weekly - March 4, 2011

Prof. published settlement agreement details on her website

DONALEE MOULTON HALIFAX

Nova Scotia’s highest court has dismissed an appeal contesting a motion for summary judgment. That appeal was initiated by Dalhousie University law professor Carol Aylward.

Aylward and her employer
have been battling it out in the
courts, the human rights arena
and settlement rooms for seven
years. The most recent skirmish
involves Aylward’s second com-
plaint with the Nova Scotia
Human Rights Commission
against Dalhousie and others,
including its president and the
dean of the law school, in which
she alleges discrimination in her
employment on the basis of “race
and/or colour/and/or sex.”
Aylward had published on her
website part of her rebuttals to
Dalhousie’s and the dean’s
responses to her most recent
complaint. Those rebuttals con-
tained details of the settlement
agreement reached between the
parties in 2005 following the first
complaint.

Reasons: Dalhousie University v. Aylward, [2011] N.S.J. No. 82.

‘Morale is at the lowest I’ve ever seen in the 28 years I have been with the public service’

Quebec
Continued From Page 1

being felt. The day before the passage of the special legislation, the overwhelming majority, 40 out of 48, of the province’s chief prosecutors and assistant chief prosecutors who manage the justice system asked for reassignment to other duties, in a show of support with their fellow lawyers, that was triggered when Claude Chartrand, Quebec’s chief organized crime prosecutor, tendered his resignation. In his letter of resignation to Louis Dionne, director of criminal and penal prosecutions, Chartrand said the province does not have enough prosecutors to proceed against 155 Hells Angels members charged with money laundering in the wake of “Operation SharQC”, a police crackdown on the biker gang. The SharQC legal team is composed of 10 Crown prosecutors, a figure that is supposed to be 16.

That is likely a sign of things to come, fears Ouimet. While it’s improbable that Quebec prosecutors and government lawyers will resign en masse in the coming weeks, many will no doubt begin to consider their options, particularly lawyers who are on the eve of their retirement, said Marc Lajoie, the head of the Association des juristes de l’État (AJE), a union representing nearly 1,000 lawyers, notaries, and other legal professionals. The average age of AJE members is 48 years old, and they make up approximately 25 per cent of the membership.

“There are many members who told me that their heart is no longer in it, and that they are considering leaving rather quickly,” said Lajoie. “Morale is at the lowest I’ve ever seen in the 28 years I have been with the public service. Bill 135 risks accelerating the departure of many of those who are on the

Crown prosecutors union president Christian Leblanc at a news conference Feb. 21 at the legislature in Quebec City.

JACQUES BOISSINOT / THE CANADIAN PRESS

eve of their retirement.”
It does not bode well for the
Quebec Crown either. Christian
Leblanc, head of the association
representing Quebec prosecu-
tors, asserts that the new deal
will make it far more difficult
for the Crown to recruit and
retain talent. Indeed, it may
even put in jeopardy a new
$31.5 million anti-corruption
squad that was announced with
great fanfare by the Quebec
government days before Bill 135
was enacted. Modeled on New
York City’s Department of
Investigation, the anti-corrup-
tion squad is expected to have a
staff of 189 employees, includ-
ing police, prosecutors and
staff. Quebec Crown prosecu-
tors, however, have said time
and time again that they will
not take part in any corruption
probes if they are legislated
back to work.

“Where are they going to find the lawyers for the anti-corruption squad?” asked Leblanc rhetorically, who admits that he is embittered by the way the government handled their negotiations. “We already have vacant positions that we cannot fill.”

“The budget of the Ministry of Justice has not increased over the past 17 years. That projects the image of a ministry that is not held with much regard by the government.

Crown prosecutors and gov-
ernment lawyers sought a 40
per cent hike in salaries, which
would have put them on par
with the national Canadian
average. At present, lawyers
employed by the Quebec gov-
ernment can earn at most
$100,756 or 45.5 per cent of the
salary earned by a judge of the
Court of Quebec, according to
figures compiled by the AJE. In
contrast, the top salary of an
Ontario Crown prosecutor or
government lawyer is $200,924
or 79.8 per cent of a provincial
court judge, making it the high-
est in the country. In Nova Sco-
tia that figure stands at
$130,143, in Manitoba $133,697,
in Alberta $176,628, and in Brit-
ish Columbia $177,653.