QUEBEC – More than 1,400 government lawyers and Crown prosecutors in Quebec went on strike Tuesday in a labour action that threatens to paralyze the province’s legal system.
Negotiations with the government to improve working conditions and ease workloads broke down overnight, union president Marc Lajoie told Postmedia News.
"We’re on strike," Lajoie said. "We’re going to affect a very substantial matter: the strategic capacity of government to move on big files."
Pickets were expected later Tuesday in front of the Montreal courthouse and the Quebec legislature.
Quebec’s legal system has already been backlogged, a situation that will only be worsened by the labour action from 1,000 lawyers who work for the provincial government along with 450 Crown prosecutors.
According to Statistics Canada, the time it takes to settle a court case in Quebec is already one of the longest in the country, at 184 days.
The strike is expected to delay court cases and could also prevent the provincial legislature – which resumes sitting Tuesday – from making any changes to the law or passing new legislation.
On Monday, Treasury Board President Michelle Courchesne had called on the government lawyers to negotiate in good faith.
"I don’t feel a true will to negotiate (on the part of the government lawyers). What I feel, however, is a real desire to go on strike," she said.
"We have acknowledged they are facing very difficult situations and we want to find solutions with them," the minister added.
Strikes by government lawyers are not common in Canada and legal ones even less so. Quebec prosecutors were granted the right to strike in 2003 and they could now be using it for the first time following two illegal strikes in 1986 and 2002.
The province’s lawyers and Crown prosecutors have complained for years they are underpaid – at least 30 per cent below the Canadian average – understaffed and overworked.
Crown prosecutors say they are overworked and an estimated 200 new prosecutors are needed to meet the demand.
Representatives for the two groups are negotiating together on the main bones of contention: salary and ethical issues.
Lajoie, president of the association of government counsel, said the strike could have "a major impact."
He said it was another blow to Quebec’s government, following recent struggles with corruption allegations on various fronts.
"This government, you know, is trying to rebuild its credibility . . . but right now, with the strike of the civil lawyers, they won’t be able to to move to show that they can govern."
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