Montreal drug case threatened after prosecutor admits to relationship with defence lawyer
The admission, initially reported in La Presse, is confirmed in court documents entered into evidence earlier this week.
The documents reveal prosecutor Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau initially lied to her supervisors about having an intimate relationship with defence lawyer Mathieu Rondeau-Poissant, before finally admitting to it.
The two lawyers were part of opposing legal teams in a case against eight men accused of operating an online cannabis trafficking network alleged to have ties to organized crime.
Bourbonnais-Rougeau is part of a special team of prosecutors in Montreal that deals with complex cases, the Bureau de la grande criminalité et des affaires spéciales.
Rondeau-Poissant represented one of the accused, David Keith Bishop.
Provincial police say the network used fraudulently obtained Health Canada medical certificates to produce and sell cannabis online, involving 70,000 transactions totalling $15 million.
Bourbonnais-Rougeau and Rondeau-Poissant are no longer working on the case, but defence lawyers have filed a request to halt proceedings, alleging the relationship was a conflict of interest and that the two may have exchanged privileged information.
Relationship 'not the best idea of the century'
The eight accused were arrested in January 2024, and several pre-trial hearings have been held since.
Court documents show the relationship between Bourbonnais-Rougeau and Rondeau-Poissant began in December of last year and ended in May.
Rondeau-Poissant stopped working on the case that same month, and that's also when Bourbonnais-Rougeau first talked to her supervisor about the relationship, after a member of the defence team alleged a possible conflict of interest.
Bourbonnais-Rougeau told her supervisor in late May that any suggestion of an intimate relationship with Rondeau-Poissant was false, and that they had a friendship that involved having lunch occasionally and nothing more.
But her story soon changed.
In a June 4 note to her supervisor, Bourbonnais-Rougeau confessed she had intimate relations with Rondeau-Poissant on two occasions during lunch hours in December 2024, admitting "it wasn't the best idea of the century."
It was only in a revised version of that note sent the following day that Bourbonnais-Rougeau revealed the intimate relationship continued beyond December
"Mr. Poissant and I have never been a couple, nor have we had a relationship that went beyond friendship," Bourbonnais-Rougeau began in the note.
"I must, however, inform you that during occasional dinners, there have been a few occasions when we have had physical encounters, notably in December and later in 2025," she continued.
"I am aware that I found myself in a conflict of interest situation, and I acknowledge that this situation was not disclosed in a timely manner," she said.
In minutes from a meeting held with her supervisors on June 11, Bourbonnais-Rougeau explained why she initially lied about the nature of the relationship.
"I'm human. I panicked. I wasn't comfortable with that, but it wasn't done in a malicious way," Bourbonnais-Rougeau said at the meeting.
CBC reached out to Rondeau-Poissant for comment but didn't hear back in time for publication.
Case could be thrown out
The revelation has put the future of the entire case in doubt, with the defence lawyers now preparing arguments for a request to have the case dismissed.
During the duration of the relationship, there were several pre-trial hearings, including discussions of a possible plea agreement and a request to exclude evidence, with both lawyers in attendance along with several other lawyers from both legal teams.
In her note to supervisors, Bourbonnais-Rougeau insisted the relationship didn't affect the case.
"Despite our personal circumstances, we never, ever had any inappropriate discussions about the case. I never obtained or shared any privileged information," Bourbonnais-Rougeau said.
One of the documents filed in court this week outlines the prosecution's position on the request for a stay of proceedings.
"It is clear that neither Alice Bourbonnais-Rougeau nor Mathieu Rondeau-Poissant have engaged in any conduct likely to jeopardize the fairness of the proceedings," the prosecution insisted.
"Given the fact that both lawyers are no longer involved in the case, there is no risk of harm to the integrity of justice," the document continued, noting that no evidence has been presented suggesting any exchange of privileged information.
Defence lawyers in the case contacted by CBC refused to comment. They'll make arguments in the request for a stay of proceedings at a hearing next month.
The Quebec Crown prosecutor's office, the Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales (DPCP), also refused to comment on the case, other than to say Bourbonnais-Rougeau is still a part of the Bureau de la grande criminalité et des affaires spéciales, but no longer assigned to this case.
Appealing previous drunk-driving conviction
This is not the first time Bourbonnais-Rougeau has made headlines for questionable conduct.
In 2023, she was found guilty of drunk driving and leaving the scene of an accident after she hit another vehicle while parking her car.
When a witness called police, Bourbonnais-Rougeau took refuge in her apartment, telling responding officers she was a Crown prosecutor and refusing to allow them to enter until they produced a search warrant.
She appealed her conviction in Superior Court but lost the appeal last fall. She's now appealing that decision before the Quebec Court of Appeal.
If the conviction is upheld, it could lead to disciplinary proceedings with the Quebec Bar, which has the power to disbar lawyers convicted of a crime.
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