Photo: Charles-Frédérick Ouellet Le Devoir “It’s a definition that is controversial across the country. So my message is to be careful about how we define women,” underlined Martine Biron.
The CAQ Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Martine Biron, hears criticism from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Richard Wagner, on his motion concerning the term “person with a vagina”, but refuses to amend his view of this “controversial” expression. The Parti Québécois, for its part, accuses the magistrate of playing “politics”.
The comments made on Monday by Judge Wagner regarding the motion adopted by the National Assembly to condemn the use in a judgment of the term “person with a vagina” were echoed on Tuesday in the corridors of parliament. Approached before question period, Minister Biron wanted to reiterate that she had read the entire Supreme Court judgment in which the expression was used to refer to a woman.
“I don’t know where the idea came from that I hadn’t read the judgment,” she said.
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First denounced in an opinion piece in the Canadian daily National Post, the use in a Supreme Court decision of the expression “person with a vagina » was the subject of a motion brought by Ms. Biron on March 14. This text, adopted unanimously by Quebec parliamentarians, denounced “the choice of words” of the judgment and reiterated “the importance of retaining the word “woman””.
On Monday, at a press conference in Ottawa, Justice Wagner returned to the saga by calling the motion “a clear example of disinformation”.
“Someone, an elected official, read an article, perhaps without checking the origin, and he commented on one of our Supreme Court judgments, and gave it an incorrect meaning. […] If the person had read correctly, they would have noticed that under no circumstances did the Supreme Court want to devalue the notion of women in Canada, on the contrary,” he said.
“Controversial definition”
The day after this outing, Ms. Biron affirmed that she “welcomed ]” the judge’s comments, while maintaining his position.
“This is a definition that is controversial across the country. So my message is to be careful about how we define women. And then we saw it, even the liberals had tried to change the word “woman” in a legislative document. So, we are a bit in this context in Quebec,” she said.
“When I first saw the headline, I thought we were talking about trans people,” she added. “I saw the judgment, I realized that this was not the case. So, I found that this expression was controversial, and I think that a woman is a woman, and that a man is a man. »
Hooked by Le Devoir a few minutes before question period, the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, maintained having read the judgment in its entirety at the time. The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, also confirmed having done so, before attacking, at a press briefing, the remarks of Judge Wagner.
“Let us remember that the judiciary has a duty of reserve, and that it is not up to the judiciary to play politics. Judge Wagner, when he tells elected officials what can or cannot be said, and when he himself commits disinformation by suggesting that we did not read the judgment before ruling , he greatly exceeds his duty of reserve,” said the PQ elected official on Tuesday.
“These assertions are not normal on the part of the judiciary, which, in principle, should maintain a duty of reserve, and not engage in politics as he does, he added. This is not his job. »
Earlier in the morning, the Liberal Party of Quebec and Québec solidaire reiterated that in their eyes, the National Assembly had moved too quickly to adopt the motion of March 14.