OTTAWA — A Quebec judge fired for failing to disclose a past criminal conviction lost his appeal Thursday to be put back on the bench.
In a unanimous ruling, Canada’s Supreme Court rejected Richard Therrien’s arguments that he had been pardoned for the crime and therefore should be reinstated.
In 1971, then 19-year-old Therrien was sentenced to a year in jail for harboring members of a Quebec terrorist group linked to the kidnapping and killing of Quebec Cabinet minister Pierre Laporte.
He served his sentence and became a lawyer in 1975.
Therrien was appointed a Quebec judge in 1996, but was suspended for failing to disclose his conviction in his application.
In his appeal, Therrien argued that a 1987 federal pardon freed him from having to disclose the crime. He also said he mentioned the conviction in previous unsuccessful applications to become a judge.
The Supreme Court, however, said the “fact that (Therrien) deliberately concealed his conviction and deprived the selection committee of relevant information concerning his competence to be appointed as a judge warrants the recommendation that his commission be revoked.”
