Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada announces judicial appointments in the province of Québec

December 14, 2020 – Ottawa, Ontario – Department of Justice Canada  

The Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointments under the judicial application process established in 2016. This process emphasizes transparency, merit, and the diversity of the Canadian population, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity.

Bernard Jolin, Partner at Langlois Lawyers, LLP in Montréal, is appointed a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Mr. Justice Jolin replaces Mr. Justice K. Casgrain (Montréal), who resigned effective February 1, 2020.

Frédéric Pérodeau, Superintendent of Client Services and Distribution Oversight at the Autorité des marchés financiers in Montréal, is appointed a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Mr. Justice Pérodeau replaces Mr. Justice A. Vincent (Montréal), who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective February 3, 2020.

Geeta Narang, Partner at Narang & associés in Montréal, is appointed a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Madam Justice Narang replaces Mr. Justice R. Castiglio (Montréal), who elected to become a supernumerary judge effective July 18, 2020.

Catherine Perreault, Criminal and Penal Prosecuting Attorney for the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales in Montréal, is appointed a puisne Judge of the Superior Court of Quebec for the district of Montréal. Madam Justice Perreault replaces Mr. Justice F. Toth (Mégantic-St. Francois), who elected to resign effective September 1, 2020. The Chief Justice has transferred Mr. Justice S.J.A. Provencher (Granby) into this vacancy  and  Madam Justice C. Dallaire  (Montréal) into the vacancy of Justice Provencher. The vacancy is therefore located in Montréal.

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 “I wish Justices Jolin, Pérodeau, Narang and Perreault every success as they take on their new roles. I am confident they will serve the people of Québec well as members of the Superior Court.”

—The Hon. David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Biographies

Justice Bernard Jolin received his Bachelor of Civil Law from the Université de Montréal in 1985 and was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 1986. Prior to his appointment to the Superior Court, he practised law as a partner at Langlois Lawyers, LLP, where he also served as Litigation Group Coordinator and Director of Compliance. Previously, he had practised at Jolin Fournier Morisset from 1986 to 1990 and Heenan Blaikie from 1990 to 2014.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Justice Jolin has practised civil and commercial litigation, particularly in bankruptcy and insolvency law, real estate law, and construction law. He has appeared before all levels of court in Quebec, as well as before the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal, and several administrative tribunals. He also represented several individuals before the Commission of Inquiry into the Sûreté du Québec and the Commission of Inquiry on the Awarding and Management of Public Contracts in the Construction Industry.

For six years, Mr. Justice Jolin was a member of the Civil Procedure Committee of the Barreau du Québec. In this capacity, he was in the vanguard of the major changes to the Code of Civil Procedure that came into force in 2016. He also served as a mentor as part of the Bar of Montreal’s Mentorship Program.

Mr. Justice Jolin and his wife, Chantal Ducharme, are the proud parents of two young adults, Isabelle and Nicolas.

Justice Frédéric Pérodeau was born and raised in Sorel-Tracy. He was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 1998 after earning a Bachelor of Laws from the Université de Montréal, where he was awarded the law faculty medal. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a Master of Laws from the Université de Montréal.

Mr. Justice Pérodeau began his career in the litigation group at McCarthy Tétrault, where he became a partner in 2005. Prior to his appointment to the Superior Court, he was Superintendent of Client Services and Distribution Oversight at the Autorité des marchés financiers, where he has also served as Senior Director of Investigations and Director of Litigation.

At the time of his appointment, Mr. Justice Pérodeau was Chair of the Professional Inspection Committee of the Barreau du Québec and was previously a member of its Committee for Access to the Profession. He has chaired the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association and has been a member of Board of Directors of the Canadian Bar Association and the Executive Committee of its Québec Branch.

Mr. Justice Pérodeau holds the designations of Administrateur de sociétés certifié  [chartered director], awarded by the Collège des administrateurs de sociétés and Université Laval, and Certified In-House Counsel, awarded by the CCCA and the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He has given over 60 lectures and authored several legal publications, and is actively involved in his community.

Justice Geeta Narang holds a Bachelor of Civil Law from McGill. She articled at the Office of the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague. She then worked at a Montreal law firm specializing in environmental law and First Nations law before starting her own practice.

Madam Justice Narang practised law at her firm in the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal, where she lives with her partner and two teenage children. She represented tenants, marginalized people, non-profits, and members of LGBTQ+ and First Nations communities. Her practice areas included tenancy law, estate law, police misconduct, disputes governed by the Indian Act, human rights, defamation, and civil claims stemming from abuses of power.

Prior to studying law, Justice Narang studied Liberal Arts and English literature at King’s College in Halifax. She taught high school in the public system, spending two years in Val d’Or, Québec. She also lived and taught at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, and in New Delhi, India. Justice Narang has taught “Judicial Institutions and Civil Procedure” at McGill’s Faculty of Law for many years and, more recently, an upper-year course entitled “Law and Poverty.” In the last decade, she has mentored many students and young lawyers interested in alternative ways of practising law. 

Since being called to the bar in 2002, Justice Narang has advocated for access to justice. She founded the Mile End Legal Clinic, a non-profit that provides free legal services to those in need, and was president of its board at the time of her appointment.

Justice Catherine Perreault earned her Bachelor of Laws from Université Laval in 1999 and completed her master’s degree in public policy analysis in 2003. In her graduate studies, she focused on public justice policy, particularly in the realm of youth criminal justice.  

Madam Justice Perreault was called to the bar in 2003 and began her career at Shadley Battista LLP in Montréal, where she specialized in representing prosecuted individuals at all levels of proceedings before the criminal and penal courts and ethical tribunals. In 2009, she joined the Economic Crime Team of the office of the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales in Montréal, and since 2013, she has dedicated her professional life to murder cases before the Superior Court. She has also been called on to argue such cases before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

In addition to serving as a prosecutor, Madam Justice Perreault has trained and mentored colleagues, to whom she has taught evidence and procedure before the criminal courts and the workings of the trial process.

Madam Justice Perreault and her partner have three children—a girl, a boy and a non-binary trans child—who are their greatest source of pride.