Les avocat.e.s de la défense et la représentation des clientèles marginalisées en Ontario et au Québec
Ces projets visent à mettre en évidence la manière dont les avocat.e.s de la défense criminelle dans les tribunaux provinciaux de l'Ontario et du Québec prennent en compte les facteurs sociaux et systémiques (par exemple, la pauvreté passée et présente, le racisme, l'exclusion sociale, le manque de logement, de soutien en matière de santé mentale et de toxicomanie, les conséquences collatérales) tout au long de la procédure judiciaire et dans leur pratique. Il vise à documenter et à analyser (1) quand et comment ils prennent en compte et répondent au désavantage social dans leur pratique professionnelle, (2) les stratégies utilisées pour négocier la mise en liberté sous caution, la déjudiciarisation et la négociation de plaidoyer, (3) les arguments et les preuves formelles utilisés lors des étapes de la détermination de la peine et (4) la collaboration avec les parties prenantes non juridiques qui contribuent aux récits et aux pratiques juridiques.
L'objectif est également de mieux comprendre comment les pratiques et les perspectives locales ont changé en raison de la pandémie et d'autres questions qui se recoupent (par exemple : les réductions de l'aide juridique, les directives sur la mise en liberté sous caution, l'IRCA) ont eu un impact sur votre point de vue et votre pratique.
Financement : 2022-2025 PI: M, Quirouette, Soutien à la recherche, relève professorale, FRQSC 2020-2023 PI: M, Quirouette CRSH, Développent Savoir 2017 - 2018 PI: M, Quirouette – Bourse Postdoctoral Banting
Publications
Drug Treatment Court : Perspectives and Practices of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Présenté en 2024 par Nicolas Spallanzani-Sarrasin à la réunion de la Law & Society Association à Denver.
Defence lawyers working in lower criminal courts are increasingly invited to be 'holistic' and to consider a range of options including specialized therapeutic justice programs like drug treatment courts (Van Cleve 2012). While criminal justice system is adjudicative by design, in practice, marginalized accused are often processed under managerial (Resnik 1982; Kohler-Haussmann 2013, 2014) or therapeutic (Wexler & Winnick 1996) models of justice. For the defence, this raises new ethical and practical challenges and questions. Scholars have been critical of specialized courts, showing how they circumvent the principles of presumption of innocence (Hannah-Moffat and Maurutto 2012), imposing onerous conditions and surveillance for participants (Moore and Lyons 2007; Moore 2014), often lacking the resources required to support participants long term (Quirouette et al 2016). What is not known however, is how criminal defence lawyers navigate this setting, advising clients or participating in drug treatment court (DTC) programs. Our paper examines this very question, drawing primarily from qualitative interviews with defence working in private practice and with legal aid, in two Canadian urban centers (n=102). We report on what participants said about their experiences, impressions, and strategies. Based on our thematic analysis, we present 3 key themes (1) when and why DTC can be desirable, (2) when and why DTC is undesirable, and (3) practices outside DTC's borrow from the form and logic. We present these findings and discuss their relevance, raising questions about access to health and social support resources, about interdisciplinary interventions and about the ways in which people are criminalized rather than helped.
‘We’re In the Trenches Here’: Criminal Defense Work with Marginalized Clients in Rural and Northern Canada
Présenté en 2024 par Cecília Batista à la Law & Society Association à Denver.
Both in the US and in Canada, research has shown how access to justice is especially complicated for marginalized individuals in rural or remote areas. Yet, little is known about how criminal defense lawyers navigate supporting disadvantaged clients outside urban centers. In our study, we draw from 145 in-depth interviews documenting the perspectives and practices of criminal defense lawyers in urban and non-urban regions of eastern Canada. Focusing primarily on 40 participants working in rural and northern courts, we identify three key themes, related to their work representing marginalized clients. First, we report on how participants experience unique challenges related to geographic remoteness, delayed court processes and local resources gaps. Second, we document strategies they use to navigate this environment and help accused secure a better outcome: going above and beyond their formal duties, taking on extreme amounts of travelling and making use of technology. Third, we describe, and analyze, how they talk about working with other legal actors that populate court communities, like prosecutors and judges. We discuss the relevance of our findings in light of recent debates about expanding therapeutic justice, improving access to legal aid supports and community resources, and addressing the over representation of indigenous people in courts and corrections.
(Dis)advantage, Collateral Consequences and the Right to Effective Legal Assistance
Présenté en 2024 par Meritxell Abellan-Almenara à la réunion de la Law & Society Association à Denver.
Research on the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction has grown exponentially in the past years. However, the overwhelming focus has been on the offenders' experience of such consequences, the impact they have on social reentry pathways and different criminal record expungement initiatives. While a few authors have shown an interest in the perceptions and practices of criminal justice actors, questions persist about the effects expanding collateral consequences have had on the criminal defense lawyers' duty to provide effective legal assistance to their clients. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 65 criminal defense lawyers and engaging with scholarship on privilege and the reproduction of inequality by the criminal justice system, the current study explores the ways criminal defense lawyers with different levels of privilege consider the collateral consequences of a conviction for their disadvantaged clients. The findings suggest that the imposition on lawyers of the duty to inform defendants of the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction as part of their right to effective legal assistance has exacerbated the privilege imbalance between private practice and legal aid lawyers. The study contributes to a better understanding of the ways collateral consequences of criminal convictions (re)produce inequality within the criminal justice system and beyond.
La reconnaissance du passé colonial : la perspective des avocats de la défense criminelle
Présenté en 2024 lors d'un webinaire de l'Observatoire des Profilages
Aucun résumé n'a été soumis.
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Consideration of homelessness in canadian criminal courts
Présenté en 2023 lors de la 23e conférence annuelle de la Société européenne de criminologie à Florence, en Italie.
It is widely recognized that people experiencing homelessness are controlled, excluded and (over)criminalized, in Canada and elsewhere (Gaetz 2013; Bellot et al. 2021). Moreover, they face several obstacles when they find themselves in court, particularly in connexion with the (lack of) presumption of innocence and access to justice (Bernheim 2019); conditions of release (Sylvestre, et al, 2020) as well as the therapeutic requirements and the feeling of procedural injustice (Sylvestre et al 2011; Roy et al 2022). At the same time, ‘support’ and adaptability programs (ex. PAJ-IC) and certain case law (Matte v. R. 2020; R. v. Zora, 2020) are reshaping the legal relevance of homelessness. In many of these circumstances, defense lawyers play an important role. Their perceptions and practices are important to document and understand, especially in our current context, where social (e.g. housing, poverty) and legal (e.g. legal aid, court delays) crises are converging, and where the possibilities of negotiation, advocacy, socio-therapeutic intervention or argumentation for sentencing are changing rapidly. Our project includes semi structured interviews conducted with defence lawyers - in private practice and with legal aid - working in Montreal (N=50), in rural areas or in northern Quebec (N=15). In our paper, we describe and analyse when and how they (1) work with and represent unhoused clients (2) raise and value the legal significance of profiling practices suffered by this group and (3) perceive how other judicial actors recognize the importance of this profiling. We draw from literature focused on the role of the defence, practice management, court cultures, justice models, and the social and legal relevance of homelessness in the courts. Our analysis highlights challenges experienced by defence lawyers and their unhoused clients, and also maps out promising practices and calls for action.
Collaboration entre avocat.e.s de la défense et intervenant.e.s communautaires :pratiques à l’étape de l’enquête sur remise en liberté
Présenté en 2023 à la Quatrième conférence biennale sur le droit pénal à Sherbooke, Québec
Les avocat.e.s de la défense jouent un rôle important dans l'élaboration des pratiques des tribunaux de juridiction criminelle, surtout auprès des populations marginalisées. Au stade de la mise en liberté provisoire, les avocat.e.s de la défense sont en mesure d'avancer des arguments qui tiennent compte des effets des désavantages sociaux et systémiques. Considérant les préoccupations de la CSC dans l’arrêt Antic à l’égard du manque d’uniformité territoriale dans l’application des règles de droit relatives à la mise en liberté provisoire, nous proposons une analyse qualitative à partir d’entretiens auprès d’avocat.e.s de la défense pratiquant en zone urbaine en pratique privée et à l’aide juridique. À partir de deux études de cas – Montréal (n=50) et Toronto (n=50) – nous analyserons les impacts des décisions majeures de la Cour suprême (Gladue, Antic et Zora) sur les pratiques lors de la mise en liberté provisoire, et, corollairement, la prise en compte les facteurs sociaux et la marginalisation de leur clientèle à ce stade des procédures judiciaires. Notre présentation porte sur l’expérience, le point de vue et le travail des avocat.e.s de la défense qui représentent des accusés marginalisés au stade de la mise en liberté provisoire. Plus précisément, les pratiques et les stratégies utilisées par les avocat.e.s pour éviter la détention provisoire ou des conditions de mise en liberté restrictives avant le procès ou la condamnation de leur clientèle.
Justice for Marginalized Accused: Managerial and Therapeutic Practices in Criminal Courts
Présenté en 2023 par Nicolas Spallanzani-Sarrasin lors de la 23e conférence annuelle de la Société européenne de criminologie à Florence, en Italie.
In recent years, we have been able to observe a marked interest in the development of specialized courts and therapeutic justice programs. These have multiplied in several cities – including Toronto and Montreal - and target various social issues, including mental health, homelessness and drug use. Although in certain contexts, these programs seem to show advantages (possibility of avoiding detention, accessing supports and psychosocial intervention), they are also criticized in the academic literature (presumption of innocence, punitive measure imposing therapy, blending of clinical and legal roles). Criminal Defence lawyers is urban centres are well positioned to have insights about specialized courts and how they are useful or not, for their marginalized clients. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with private practice and duty counsel criminal defence lawyers working in Montreal, Toronto, our article aims to identify and understand when and how lawyers talk about one type of specialized courts – Drug Treatment. More specifically, we focus on (1) appreciation; (2) criticism, and (3) alternative strategies. We draw our theoretical framework from the literature on therapeutic and managerial justice, court culture and on the role of criminal defense lawyers. We argue that despite the great differences between the different specialized courts, lawyers are often pushed to refer their clients to these programs, criticizing the fact that they make the criminalization of marginalized people invisible and reify problematic notions of individual responsibility prominent in corrections.
Criminal Defence Work: The ‘Relevance’ Of Marginalization at Bail and Sentencing
Présenté en 2022 à la conférence de Law and Society Associarion à Lisbonne, au Portugal