Quebec Court Judge Suzanne Vadboncoeur uttered a conditional apology and conceded it was possible she insulted a special constable inside the parking garage of the Montreal courthouse when she appeared before an inquiry panel Friday morning.
The 5-person panel, part of Quebec’s Conseil de la Magistrature du Québec, heard Vadboncoeur’s testimony as part of the final stage of hearing involving a complaint filed by Special Constable Robert David Jean, a guard who works at the courthouse. As part of its responsibilities the council supervises the conduct of judges.
Jean alleged that the judge insulted him, on Dec. 8, after he and another special constable had difficulty opening a garage door that temporarily prevented Vadboncoeur and three other people from exiting in their cars.
“It is accurate to say I lost my patience. If I said things that hurt people I am profoundly sorry,” the 66-year-old judge told the panel composed of three judges, a lawyer and a member of the public. She later made a more general apology to the people who heard her comments “and in particular to the plaintiff (Jean).”
On Dec. 8, Vadboncoeur attended a Christmas cocktail, at the Montreal courthouse, held for judges, their assistants and other personnel. After the cocktail a dinner was held, at Auberge Le Saint-Gabriel, a nearby restaurant in Old Montreal.
While responding to questions from her lawyer, Jean-Claude Hébert, she said she had one glass of white wine at the cocktail and two glasses of red wine, followed by coffee, during the dinner.
After the dinner she walked back to the courthouse and got into her car parked in a section reserved for judges and prosecutors in a sub-basement level of the courthouse. As her car pulled up to the garage door of the parking lot she noticed that two cars in front of her’s were waiting for it to open.
After waiting a couple of minutes, Vadboncoeur said on Friday, she got out of her car to see what the problem was. Jean explained to her that there was a technical problem and that he and another special constable were trying to fix it. The judge returned to her car and exited it a second time as she grew impatient. She noticed by then that another car was behind her’s. She approached the person inside the car who turned out to be Quebec Court Judge Vincenzo Piazza, one of the people who organized the Christmas dinner.
“I told him we were imprisoned in the garage,” Vadboncoeur said.
As part of the investigation into Vadboncoeur’s behaviour that night, Piazza provided a statement to Sylvain Trudel, a lawyer and an investigator for the panel. According to a summary of Piazza’s statement, Vadboncoeur spoke to the other special constable and threatened to file a complaint against Jean. Piazza said he overheard Vadboncoeur refer to Jean as thick, incompetent, “a goddamned a–hole” and “not even capable of opening a door.”
Piazza also told Trudel that when the door was finally opened Vadboncoeur left so fast her tires burned rubber.
During her testimony on Friday, Vandboncoeur denied having exited the garage quickly. She argued it was impossible because there were two cars in front of her’s when the garage door finally opened.
“Did I say ‘thick’ it is possible, very possible,” she said. “Did I say ‘goddamned something?’ I don’t know.”
She also conceded later on that she might have referred to Jean as “incompetent” while she waited impatiently for the garage door to open.
The other constable testified, during an earlier hearing, that he could hear Vadboncoeur screaming inside her car during the episode even if her car windows were closed.
The panel will deliberate before it makes any recommendations to the council.
