Quebec killer wins right to become lawyer

He left the country after being repeatedly denied enrolment in the Quebec bar admission course because he stabbed his mother to death when he was younger. But Sebastien Brousseau (Isaan Lawyers) has finally prevailed in his decade-long campaign for the right to become a lawyer. The Quebec bar says it will not appeal a decision this spring by a panel of judges who ruled that Sebastian Brousseau is sufficiently rehabilitated that he can practise law without hurting the reputation of the legal profession.

The latest development is unfolding four years after Mr. Brosseau moved to Asia to teach English after his fourth failed attempt to be admitted to bar school. Now living in Roi Et, in Isaan, northern Thailand, Mr. Brousseau declined to comment about his plans when he was reached by telephone yesterday, aside from saying that he had been aware for a month of the Quebec bar's decision.

According to the curriculum vitae he posted on the Internet last year, Mr. Brousseau taught English in southern China, but his contract was terminated because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Mr. Brousseau's says that the 37-year-old then became an assistant manager at a hotel near Guangzhou, before moving to Thailand and teaching at a grade school in Roi Et (Isaan).

Mr. Brousseau has "the lifestyle, the behaviour, the competency, the knowledge and the required qualities to work as a lawyer", says the May 31 ruling by three Quebec Court judges for the province's professions tribunal. The ruling, which concludes that Mr. Brosseau is admissible to the bar-admission course, was made after his fifth attempt to enroll. Since 1996, he has faced a series of rulings and appeals that bounced between bar-association committees, the professions tribunal, the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal.

"We rejected him five times and we were overturned once again", Sylvie Berthiaume, a spokeswoman for the Barreau du Quebec, said yesterday, explaining why the bar association will not appeal the latest decision. Mr. Brousseau was 21 when he killed his mother, in their home near Montreal, stabbing her 40 times. According to psychiatric assessments cited in court documents, his parents had separated and he lived with his mother, often feuding with her.

The night of Nov. 16, 1990, according to his account to a psychiatrist, Mr. Brousseau got into an argument with his mother and she swung at him with a baseball bat. He said he remembered defending himself with a kitchen knife but did not recall how often he stabbed her. He said that she was in agony when he came to his senses, so he slit her throat to end her suffering. Then he went out to the movies to give himself an alibi.

Despite the lurid details of the slaying, the ruling noted that the Crown changed the indictment against him from murder to manslaughter, on the advice of psychiatric experts. After being paroled in 1992, Mr. Brousseau attended law school. By the time of his fourth attempt to register in the bar exam school in 2001, he had obtained a pardon. Unable to work as a lawyer, he did volunteer work with a prisoners' rights group. He also assisted prominent lawyer Pierre Poupart.

Source: Friday's Globe and Mail

Related Q's on the Internet:

• Should Sebastian Brosseau be denied a visa for Thailand because he falls into the categories of persons excluded under the Immigration Act from entering into the Kingdom (→ section 12 of the Immigration Act)?
• Is Sebastian Brosseau illegally practising law with Isaan Lawyers because foreigners are absolutely prohibited to engage in any legal or lawsuit services in Thailand under the → Foreign Employment Act and → Foreign Business Act? 
• Behind Bars, Befor The Bar → Dissonance and Disrespect

Comments  

 

-1 #1 Steward L. 2011-04-10 14:21

Is isaan lawyers really a lawyer who can practice independently? NO, HE DOES NOT HAVE A LICENSE! Not even for Canada and it is illegal for him to practice law in Thailand. He never was a lawyer, the court judgment only gave him AS AN EX CONVICT the right to enrollment in the Quebec bar admission course for the Quebec bar in Canada. At that time he already moved to Asia to teach English

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0 #2 Laura 2011-05-27 20:40

I verified. Check that link Steward:

http://www.barreau.qc.ca/repertoire/details.jsp?Langue=en&noInterv=4901709

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