Latest news with #Galiatsatos
Vancouver Sun
4 days ago
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
Judge overstepped his authority in ruling against Quebec's language law: appeal court
MONTREAL — Quebec's Court of Appeal says a provincial court judge overstepped his jurisdiction when he ruled that part of the province's language law is unconstitutional. In May 2024, Quebec court Judge Denis Galiatsatos raised a legal question on his own initiative while overseeing a case involving a woman charged with criminal negligence causing the death of a cyclist. The woman had sought a trial in English. Galiatsatos took issue with a section of Quebec's language law that was scheduled to enter into effect in June of that year, a few days before the start of the trial. The law requires that a French translation of court decisions be made available 'immediately and without delay.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The judge said at the time that the law would systematically delay English verdicts because of the French translation requirement. In a procedural ruling ahead of the trial, he declared the provision inoperable. His ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in late May. In a written ruling dated Aug. 8 outlining its reasons, a three-justice panel unanimously agreed that Galiatsatos's actions in initiating the debate went beyond his jurisdiction. 'Perhaps there was room here for a proper constitutional debate on the applicability of the (law) in criminal matters. One can legitimately ask this,' the high court ruled. 'But initiating, conducting and resolving this debate, unilaterally and in anticipation, as the judge attempted to do here, went far beyond the limits of his jurisdiction.' Following Galiatsatos's initial ruling, Quebec's attorney general took the matter before Superior Court for a judicial review, which was dismissed due to the absence of 'harm to the public interest in the judge's ruling.' Quebec's attorney general then brought the matter before the Court of Appeal, which said, 'the procedure followed here left too much to be desired' and that a judge alone cannot take it upon themselves to decide a matter in this way, using 'pure hypotheses,' a 'deficient procedural framework' and absent the 'illumination of a well-documented context.' If anyone chooses to challenge the constitutionality of the article in the future, it will have to be redone correctly, the court ruled. Droits collectifs Quebec, a Quebec civil liberties group, welcomed the ruling. The organization takes up cases of French language rights, notably in the push to get the Supreme Court of Canada to translate unilingual English rulings delivered before 1970, when decisions started to be systemically translated under the Official Languages Act. In the group's opinion, the move by the judge 'amounted to nothing less than an activist judicial refusal to respect not only the French language charter, but also the foundations of the principle of judicial impartiality and independence by taking up the question of the constitutional validity of the charter on its own.' French Language Minister Jean-Francois Roberge said Thursday the government welcomes the Court of Appeal ruling and sends a clear message. 'Whenever the charter is attacked or violated, we will defend it,' Roberge said on X. 'The future of the French language and our nation depend on it.' Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Winnipeg Free Press
4 days ago
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Judge overstepped his authority in ruling against Quebec's language law: appeal court
MONTREAL – Quebec's Court of Appeal says a provincial court judge overstepped his jurisdiction when he ruled that part of the province's language law is unconstitutional. In May 2024, Quebec court Judge Denis Galiatsatos raised the question on his own initiative while overseeing a case involving a woman charged with criminal negligence causing the death of a cyclist. The language law's article 10 says a French translation of court decisions must be made available 'immediately and without delay.' The English-language trial in question got underway two days after the language law took effect in June 2024. Galiatsatos said at the time that the law systematically delays the delivery of verdicts handed down in English because of the French translation requirement. Both the provincial and federal attorneys general argued before the Court of Appeal that Galiatsatos could not raise the question on his own initiative. The province's high court agreed, and in a ruling Aug. 8 said the judge's actions in initiating the debate went beyond his jurisdiction. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2025.
Montreal Gazette
09-06-2025
- Montreal Gazette
Quebec judge didn't have power to strike down part of language law, appeal court rules
By A Quebec Court judge did not have the authority to strike down a section of the province's language law before issuing a ruling exclusively in English, the Court of Appeal has ruled. In May 2024, Judge Dennis Galiatsatos found that a section of Quebec's language law, which would require judges who issue rulings in English to accompany them with a French translation 'immediately and without delay,' could not apply to criminal trials in the province. The provincial government appealed that decision. The province's highest court sided with the Quebec government, and ruled that Galiatsatos didn't have the authority to issue the decision. The May 27 ruling by a three-judge panel was delivered orally and written reasons for the decision are expected to published at a later date. Galiatsatos was not present and not represented at the appeal court hearing. The office of Quebec Justice Minister and Attorney General Simon Jolin-Barrette described the appeal court ruling as an 'important victory.' 'Rest assured we will continue to stand firm on our position. Justice must be accessible in French in Quebec,' Jolin-Barrette's office said in a statement. Galiatsatos's decision on the language law came shortly before he was to begin hearing the trial of a West Island woman who struck and killed a cyclist with her car and had requested to be tried in English. The translation requirement, which was introduced as part of the language law reform known as Bill 96, was scheduled to go into effect several days before the start of the trial and Galiatsatos said he worried that when it was time to issue his ruling, having it translated could lead to lengthy delays that might violate the accused's right to be tried within a reasonable amount of time. The issue was not raised by either party in the case, but rather by the judge himself, who proactively heard arguments from both the accused and the Crown, as well as the federal and provincial attorneys general on the translation requirement. Galiatsatos ultimately convicted the accused, Christine Pryde of dangerous driving, impaired driving and criminal negligence causing death, and issued a written decision exclusively in English, but ordered that it be translated. In November, Quebec's judicial council found that the judge didn't violate any ethical rules in his decision on the translation requirement, but said it was not the appeals court and couldn't rule on whether he applied the law correctly. That decision by the Conseil de la magistrature du Québec did not name Galiatsatos, but the circumstances of the case it referenced were identical.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Maryland better-prepared for another pandemic 5 years after COVID, experts say
BALTIMORE — Five years to the day after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, local leaders in COVID-19-related health care say the virus has forever changed Maryland, the U.S. and the world — in some ways, they said, for the better. The WHO declared the pandemic on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, when case numbers and the number of countries where the virus was appearing had spiked alarmingly in just two weeks. The next day, Gov. Larry Hogan announced that Maryland would close schools for two weeks, a period that stretched into 18 months of virtual learning for most. Soon, workplaces shut down, grocery stores limited their hours, and hand sanitizer and face masks became staples in many homes as researchers raced to develop a vaccine. Ultimately, the pandemic killed 1.2 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control. Both the WHO and the U.S. ended their COVID-19 emergency declarations in 2023, with many doctors shifting to treating COVID like the flu: a virus for which outbreaks will continue to ebb and flow. Maryland suffered 1.5 million cases; 18,352 died from the virus within the state's borders, state data says. One hundred and eight are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, according to the Maryland Department of Health. Seven are children. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting effect on the country and our state, several Maryland medical experts said, as the lessons learned have put communities in a better position in the event of another pandemic. 'From my standpoint, I do think we're better,' said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, co-founder and co-director of Johns Hopkins' Medicine for the Greater Good, a curriculum that works to improve medical messaging to communities across different cultures. Galiatsatos, who is triple-board certified in internal medicine, intensive care and pulmonology, worked in the intensive care unit during the pandemic. He held the hand of well over 100 people as they died, he said, 'because their families would request they not pass away alone.' While Galiatsatos was working in the ICU, he was also working to improve lines of communication with different neighborhoods and groups of people across the city with Medicine for the Greater Good. The organization connected with hundreds of religious and community leaders, strengthening medical messaging and learning how best to approach different communities to ensure they had access to concise, actionable information. 'If there's a silver lining of the pandemic,' Galiatsos said, 'if another public health crisis comes along we can streamline medical messaging as best we can and allow people to make decisions for themselves.' The medical community 'needs to recognize how cultures take in information,' he said. 'If you infringe on it, that's how you create a lot of friction.' This is a big shift from medical messaging at the start of the pandemic, which relied largely on scientists and doctors standing at podiums, Galiatsos said. In turn, many people across the U.S. turned to people they trusted to interpret the information for them, and the message didn't always land. Dr. Laura Malone, the executive director of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, a research and treatment facility for children with special needs, agreed. 'The pandemic was such a shift in daily lives for Marylanders and people all across the United States,' Malone said. 'So much has changed in the past five years. Think about where we were and what we didn't know in March 2020.' Too, Malone noted, the medical community has come a long way in learning how to identify and treat COVID-19, resulting in much better outcomes for most patients. While history shows us that it is almost certain another pandemic will occur, Malone said, she added that the COVID-19 pandemic taught us a lot about how to navigate a highly infectious virus. 'Doctors are continuing to develop rapid advances in scientific innovations and clinical treatments,' Malone said. 'Since 2020, ideas like remote learning, hybrid working, telehealth meetings, and more have been integrated into our culture. 'Most of all, Maryland knows how to come together as a community and would certainly be able to do so again.' However, not all outcomes are good for those infected with the virus — and not all the changes are positive. Malone said since the pandemic began, her practice has seen a lot of children come in with debilitating fatigue and post-exertional malaise. 'These experiences have always existed, but they weren't nearly as common before the pandemic,' Malone said. 'We also are seeing a lot of children with new dizziness, brain fog, or cognitive difficulties after having COVID.' Those who've had multiple COVID infections are also at greater risk of developing Long COVID — a chronic condition with varied symptoms — according to the CDC. Studies are now underway to learn about the condition and find ways to prevent it. Harder to quantify are the effects of the lost time for many groups — including grandparents who were cut off from their grandchildren, and students from their classmates and friends — and the lost loved ones. 'Calling us doctors doesn't make us less human,' Galiatsos said of the difficulty of tending to his neighbors as the coronavirus took their lives. Health care workers on the front lines like Galiatsos were hailed as heroes throughout the pandemic, and righfully so, suggested Chase Cook, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Health. 'We are proud of the work that thousands of health care officials, community health workers, case investigators and epidemiologists have done during the past five years to protect Marylanders,' he said. 'However, our work is not done when it comes to fighting COVID-19. We continue to encourage Maryland residents to talk to a health care provider or visit to find an updated COVID-19 vaccine near them.' ---------
