The Supreme Court ruled: The tram project is not illegal. The judge dismissed the anti-trams’ arguments in their entirety and ruled that the project can go ahead.
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“In short, nothing in the plaintiffs’ appeal constitutes an obstacle to the Québec streetcar project,” concludes Judge Clément Samson, whose judgment Le Journal obtained a copy of.
The judge confirmed that “the Council of Ministers had the authority to decide on the Quebec streetcar project within the meaning of the provisions of the Environmental Quality Act”, that the process was conducted in accordance with that Act that the Council of Ministers had discretion to accept the Quebec project The plaintiffs failed in their motion to call for a referendum because no law requires it, the court concluded.
In addition, “the courts have no jurisdiction to intervene in relation to violations of electoral obligations,” the judge said.
“Generally, the plaintiffs are failing in their challenge to the streetcar project as to any violation of their fundamental rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms,” he wrote. Accordingly, the claim for compensatory and punitive damages is dismissed.
Judge Clément Samson, who heard the anti-tram case last December, delivered his verdict Tuesday morning.
He was asked to decide a crucial question: Is the Quebec streetcar project illegal?
It is the claim of Group Quebec Deserves Better (QMM) that brought the case to the Supreme Court.
QMM has engaged the services of Attorney Guy Bertrand to represent it.
They are demanding that the project be stopped and that the court order a referendum on the project. Over four days in early December, the court heard arguments from both sides.
reactions
Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand called the press at 11:30 am to share his reaction to the ruling. QMM will respond in the afternoon.
Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault, asked to comment on the tribunal’s decision, was sparing with comments.
“The Réseau Express Capitale is an important project for the citizens of our Capitale-Nationale. Since this is the City of Quebec’s project, we will let them comment,” Ms. Guilbault’s press attaché, Louis-Julien Dufresne, said in an email.
Impact on quality of life
During the trial, the plaintiffs called two residents who live along the route of the future tram. They uncovered the possible consequences of the project for their quality of life, one of them called the dispossessions “rape”.
Experts consulted by QMM said the project was “unacceptable” because the city had not considered all possible modes of transport.
The opponents had failed to publish the decisions of the Council of Ministers that preceded the adoption of the decree approving the tram.
“Useless” expertise
For their part, the City of Quebec and the Government of Quebec had refuted all of QMM’s arguments, asking Judge Samson to consider the two experts’ papers “entirely useless” and to reject them.
The city reminded that it is not legally obliged to organize a referendum to make a decision about the tram. She argues that the project cannot be declared illegal once approved by the National Assembly.
The Quebec prosecutor, meanwhile, had argued that it was not for the court to assess the “political” decision made for the tram.
More details to come
–Collaborated by Marc-André Gagnon, Parliament Office