The Chamber of Judicial Officers of Quebec held on 22 October 2012 an international symposium on the theme "In an era of new technology, putting the experience of other countries to contribute to develop justice in Quebec"
On 8 April 2012 a newspaper in Quebec wrote an article: "Justice Awash in Paper." For Louis-Raymond Maranda, President of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Quebec (CHJQ) and Secretary of the UIHJ, "we are very, very late" he laments. Twenty years ago Quebec began investing in technology. Fifteen years after launching the project IJIS (Integrated Justice Information System) and forty million dollars later, it was put to an end by the former government: clearly a failure!
A major International Conference
At the initiative of the President of the CHJQ and under the honorary chair of Deputy Chief Justice of the Superior Court, the Honourable André Wery, this international e-conference was held in Montreal. Twenty-three renowned speakers from different countries gathered to share with participants advances in technology in the field of justice in their countries.
More than 120 participants, lawyers, judges, notaries, judicial officers and some representatives of the provincial and federal governments were in attendance to listen - and maybe even learn from - what exists abroad to contribute to develop justice in Quebec as regards information technology. Sue Collins (USA), member of the board of the UIHJ was present.
In his opening remarks, President Maranda observed "a significant delay in the development of information technology compared to other countries." For him, the success of the digitization and modernization of computerization of the infrastructure of the justice stakeholders had to go through "interoperability", a guarantee of success. But it was necessary to all sit at the same table at the same time to lay a solid foundation of this great ambitious project.
Louis-Raymond Maranda also warned the concerned parties to the fact that technological change is growing fast, that justice should demonstrate its ability to monitor this development, that if a case was to be heard and justice proved not being able to provide the technology to support a piece of evidence, it would be a denial of justice. He referred in this regard to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on 16 June 2009 (Lawyers Partners AS. v Slovakia) in which the Court ruled against Slovakia, recognizing that if the Code of Civil Procedure allowed the use of technology, courthouses should be able to offer adequate administrative support to citizens.
A Very Fruitful Plenary Session
The plenary meeting was hosted by the very talented Nathalie Roy, CEO of Educaloi. For the first time ever, the three Colleges of justice attended together the same floor to discuss issues.
Questioned by Ms Roy on the question of whether it was true that justice was behind, Jean Lambert, President of the Chamber of Notaries of Quebec, responded by saying that notaries were very advanced, as showed for example the digital signature Notarius that exists since 1998.
The President of the CHJQ, meanwhile, said progress was seen at individual level, for instance with the platform on electronic service of documents "NOTABENE", funded by the judicial officers of Quebec and launched in May 2012. For his part, the president of the Bar of Quebec, Nicolas Plourde, praised the access to the Legal Information Center (CAIJ), the legal information portal and library network at the service of members of the bar and of Quebec Judges. But all agreed to admit a group delay.
At the end of the day, the president of the Quebec Chamber called for a creation of a Committee on the efficiency and access to justice relating to technology. He also invited the partners to act quickly. In this regard, the Government should already be looking at a digital identity as well as an electronic signature only issued by a trusted third party such as Notarius.
Several workshops were chaired by Patrick Gingras (from the Ministry of Justice), who was an outstanding moderator in ensuring a smooth running of operations. Some countries explained their process and application of information technology in the field of justice.
Martin Tarvi (Estonia) explained that his country adopted electronic voting for parliamentary elections in recent years. To do this, a digital identity and electronic signature had been implemented. Mr Tarvi is the prime contractor for these applications in Estonia. Paula Meira Laurenço (Portugal), member of the Scientific Council of the UIHJ, former President of the Commission for the Efficiency of Justice for Enforcement in Portugal, demonstrated the efficiency of dematerialisation in courts in her country and the success of the principle of interoperability.
The judicial officers of Hungary showed their technological evolution, including in electronic service. French judges were present, as well as the President of the National Chamber of the judicial officers of France, Jean-Daniel Lachkar, and the president of the National Federation of Trusted Third Party (FNTC), Alain Bobant. In addition, the FNTC stressed the accession of CHJQ to its organization, the Quebec Chamber being the official representative for North America. The National Association of Professional Process Servers (NAPPS) was also present, represented by Eric Vennes, e-Technology Chair.
Judicial Officers from Quebec and Electronic Voting
As part of the presentation of electronic voting in Estonia, the CHJQ, in cooperation with the firm Innobec, developer of web and mobile software, announced a new service: electronic voting supervised by a judicial officer, the perfect trusted third party to ensure the integrity of elections. This service is intended for all unions, associations, boards, condominium corporations or organizations requiring electoral process. The CHJQ proposes to leverage technology to increase the rate of participation in elections and thus help suppress paper.
So, how soon are provincial elections supervised by judicial officers?
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