Case information

Law of professions — Notaries — Discipline — Administrative law — Procedural fairness — New evidence — Disciplinary council finding notary guilty of affixing co-liquidator’s signature to documents by editing and/or superimposition — Disciplinary council penalizing notary by striking her permanently off roll — Notary unsuccessfully seeking to introduce new evidence before appeal tribunal — Superior Court intervening on judicial review, but judgment reversed by Court of Appeal — Whether application for leave to appeal raises question of public importance.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

In 2017, the disciplinary council of the Chambre des notaires du Québec found the applicant, Ms. Gélinas, guilty of forgery, of telling the police that documents had been signed by a third party when she knew that they were forgeries and of obstructing the syndic’s investigation. For certain counts, it was ordered that the applicant be permanently struck off the roll. For others, it was ordered that her permit to practice be revoked. The council’s decisions were, for the most part, upheld by the Professions Tribunal. The Superior Court allowed the application for judicial review brought by Ms. Gélinas because the judge was of the view that her right to procedural fairness had been breached and that the penalties imposed by the council were inappropriate. The Quebec Court of Appeal allowed the respondent’s appeal and set aside the Superior Court’s judgment, since the panel was of the view that the judge should not have intervened to substitute his opinion for those of the Tribunal and the council. While the judge had properly identified the applicable standard of review, namely reasonableness, he had in fact applied the standard of correctness.