The family of a 92-year-old man who was fatally shoved in 2019 fears the defendant will escape his manslaughter trial due to a lack of judges.
“The justice system is sick. We are the victim of a lack of resources, it’s unfair,” said Paul Martineau.
In the fall of 2019, his father, Lionel Martineau, died after being thrown to the ground during an altercation with a neighbor in Beloeil. Abraham Leblanc was then charged with manslaughter.
However, the 39-year-old man could now escape justice.
His trial opened last September, with the hearing of motions. The next hearings have recently been set for February… 2024. Thus, by then, the accused will be able to benefit from a stay of proceedings for unreasonable delays.
To respect the ceilings established by the Supreme Court in the Jordan judgment, the trial should indeed be concluded at the end of the summer, underlined the prosecutor in the file, Ms.e Marie-Claude Morin, during a hearing last month.
“Obviously, this is not a shoplifting case, it’s a case that will have to be prioritized over another”, had launched judge Benoît Gariépy.
glaring lack
The rest of the procedures were initially to continue next March. However, it was an error: the judge had confused two files whose defendants bore the same surname.
Faced with this imbroglio, the parties tried last month to find a new date for the trial of Abraham Leblanc.
Despite warnings from the Crown prosecutor about the Jordan delay, the trial was set for next year. It is thus the chronic lack of magistrates in Saint-Hyacinthe that sealed the fate of the file, according to our information.
Judge Benoît Gariépy is currently the only one to sit full-time in the district, we learned. One of his colleagues is on long-term sick leave and another was appointed a few days ago and will not sit for several weeks.
Another judge is expected to be appointed soon.
ratio problem
Discouraged, those close to Lionel Martineau went so far as to question the Minister of Justice, also a deputy for the constituency where the victim resided.
“The Minister of Justice obviously cannot interfere in a particular file. Note that the hearing schedule is entirely a matter of judicial independence,” said Élisabeth Gosselin, press officer for Simon Jolin-Barrette.
The government is moreover of the opinion that it is more the change in court time to which judges devote themselves that causes delays. By sitting one day out of two rather than two out of three, the magistrates amputate more than 4,000 hearing days per year.
At the Criminal and Penal Prosecutions Branch, we are still hoping that a solution will be found so that the trial can be scheduled more quickly.
Victim’s family seeking justice
“It seems to me that there are a thousand and one solutions: the trial could take place in another district, find a judge elsewhere or move a trial for a less violent crime. I would like to know that people are struggling body and soul to solve this problem, ”suggests Dominique Ouellet.
Like his relatives, the granddaughter of Lionel Martineau deplores that the man accused of manslaughter could possibly benefit from a stay of proceedings.
She is aware that at the end of a trial, the judge may not be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt of Abraham Leblanc’s guilt and thus acquit him.
Free
“I will accept it, if it is at the end of a trial, she said. I believe in our system, when it works. »
For one of the victim’s sons, it is above all the circumstances of the tragedy that exasperate him.
“My father was pushed and he died… It’s so gratuitous what happened,” lamented Paul Martineau, one of the four children of the eldest.
“If there is no trial due to lack of resources, what message does that send to criminals? ” he asks.
The man assures that he and his relatives are not looking for revenge, but for justice.
Civil suit
His family even recently filed a civil lawsuit against Abraham Leblanc, claiming $310,000 in damages.
“We don’t do this for the money. If we win, we will donate the amount to an organization that helps seniors, explained Paul Martineau. We want the justice system to find him guilty, to be punished. »
According to him, his father was, despite his 92 years, very functional and fit. The years before his death, the eldest had taken care of his wife, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. She died two months before the tragedy.
“He had just resumed his life, we wanted him to experience things since he no longer had to take care of our mother”, lamented another of his sons, Gaston.
It is in front of the residence of Abraham Leblanc that the victim Lionel Martineau was pushed, before dying.