Updated April 2, 2006
The Honourable Madam Justice Johanne Lafrance-Cardinal
Madam Justice Johanne Lafrance-Cardinal of Cornwall is appointed a Judge of
the Family Court Branch of the Superior Court of Justice in Cornwall.
Madam Justice Lafrance-Cardinal received her LL.B. from the University of
Ottawa, and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1980. Prior to her
appointment to the provincial family court in 1994, she was a partner with
the law firm of Leduc, Lafrance-Cardinal in Cornwall, specializing in family
law and mediation. Madam Justice Lafrance-Cardinal worked with the
Children's Aid Society of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, and was a panel
member of the Children's Lawyers Office. She is a member of the Ontario
Family Law Judges' Association, the International Association of Women
Judges and l'Association des juristes d'expression francaise de l'Ontario.
She was appointed Nov 1999UPDATE April 2, 2006
On Tuesday, March 28, 2006 at Cornwall Family Court Justice Lafance-Cardinal sent Jacques Lajoie to jail for 100 days for failing to pay child support. At least that is what Justice Johanne Lafrance-Cardinal and
the Family Responsibility Office would have us believe.
What happened?
Jacques runs a small tool rental business in Eastern Ontario. Due to divorce his business suffered a large number of problems which required using a wide variety of loans and financing to keep the business afloat. This created a "book keeping" nightmare that may be impossible to rectify.
Although in reality he was just able to make a contribution to his new partners food bill he did not earn or make enough money to pay an order for over $800 a month in support. The demands for the child support order, just added further debts that got out of control. Finally , on March 28, 2006 Justice Lafrance-Cardinal issued n order that would probably never have been obtained if Jacques had been able to keep his books up to date.
When you run a number of small businesses it is very easy to get behind in book keeping and its very easy for a vindictive ex spouse to ask a court to impute an income much larger than reality but that is not exactly what happened here.
Jacques was simply swamped in demands for records of financial dealings that either did not exist or were impossible or prohibitively expensive to obtain. His failure to be able to meet all the demands of documents appears to have triggered this arrest.
Don't be too hard on the FRO. Apparently the FRO lawyer to his credit told Madam Justice Lafrance-Cardinal that he needed TWO hours to go over the material. Justice Lafrance-Cardinal said "I only have ten minutes".
So, she ordered Jacques to spend 100 days in jail. Obviously, Jacques did not have, does not have and won't have the money. His family and relatives are now held to ransom to get him out of jail.
It really makes you wonder. Madam Justice Lafrance-Cardinal knew he was unrepresented, that he did not have the funds to appeal let alone pay the demand but still made a decision to send him to jail without providing a realistic opportunity for Jacques to prove prior and present real income.
Justice Lafrance-Cardinal made a decision to flagrantly abuse her judicial discretion.
This is one judge that deserves watching closely in the future. Typically, "dubious decisions" do not always attract attention or publicity. The object of this web site is to keep the public aware of news worthy decisions.
If you have any experiences or knowledge about Madam Justice Lafrance-Cardinal, please email info@OttawaMensCentre.com
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