2000, McGill College Avenue, Suite 600, Montreal, QC, H3A 3H3
Tél:514 286-9800
Fax:514 286-7827
Contact form submitted!
We will be in touch soon.
Clear Submit

Our team is waiting for your call.
Contact us immediatly at
514 286-9800
  • Litige commercial, responsabilité civile et assurances
  • Inspection professionnelle et droit professionnel
  • Pratique illégale d'une profession
  • Droit administratif et droit règlementaire
  • Droit disciplinaire, déontologie et responsabilité professionnelle
Français

Disciplinary law: the link between a criminal offence and the practice of the profession

In a judgement rendered in June 2018, the Professions Tribunal discusses the process that must be followed by the disciplinary council when a disciplinary complaint based on section 149.1 of the Professional Code is brought before it. In accordance with said section, the disciplinary council must determine whether or not there exists a link between a criminal offence committed by a given professional and his or her profession. This process consists of a two-step test, whose first step is to determine whether the offences and the circumstances in which they were committed cast a doubt on the qualities needed to practice the profession. The second step is to decide what the appropriate sanction is, all while considering all relevant circumstances (Comptables professionnels agréés (Ordre des) c. Nareau, 2018 QCTP 60).

THE FACTS           

In 2011, the accountant was a young successful man who, when intoxicated by cocaine and alcohol, stabbed a friend. He returned to work the next day, and was only arrested upon his return home. At the time of his arrest, he explained to the police that the victim had abused and humiliated him, but acknowledged that he could not justify his actions. In 2012, following the completion of a court-ordered therapy, the accountant turned his life around, notably by joining the CMA order and working as a financial controller for a political party who believed that he deserved a second chance.

In 2014, the accountant, suffering from suicidal thoughts, relapsed, and was arrested and accused of assault, cocaine possession, and breach of condition, all accusations to which he pled guilty.

In January 2016, the Disciplinary Council of the Ordre des comptables professionnels agrees, decidingthat the criminal offences to which the accountant had pled guilty had no link to the accounting profession, dismissed the assistant syndic’s complaint. The Council specified that the offences, although highly reprehensible, had been committed within the limits of the accountant’s private life and did not call into question the essential qualities needed to practice public accounting.

The Disciplinary Council’s decision is appealed by the assistant syndic. The accountant in question did not take part in the debate. The question submitted to the Professions Tribunal concerns the process that needs to be followed in order to establish, in accordance with section 149.1 of the Professional Code, a link between the criminals offences committed by the professional and the practice of his profession.

THE PROFESSIONS TRIBUNAL’S DECISION

After having considered the arguments invoked by the appellant, the Professions Tribunal draws the following conclusions:

  1. The Professional Code imposes on each and every professional order the obligation to verify whether there exists a link between criminal offences committed by a member and the practice of his profession.
     
  2. The first step of the process is to examine the nature of offences, their seriousness, as well as the circumstances surrounding their commission, and to put these elements in relation with the essential qualities needed to practice the profession.
     
  3. If the disciplinary council deems that such a link does exist, it must proceed to the second step and take into consideration the specific practice of the professional in order to decide whether it is appropriate or not to impose a given sanction, and if so, what the sanction should be.  
     
  4. In the circumstances, the criminal offences committed, unlike fraud, were not actions that could have been taken in the role of a public accountant during the practice of the profession, as public accountancy’s reason for being does not include the protection of human integrity or the abstinence from drugs.
     
  5. However, the accountant’s attitude following the commission of the offences, notably his return to the office the following day to participate in a meeting, proves to be fundamentally contrary to the essential qualities of honesty, integrity, sincerity and probity expected by the professionals who practice public accounting. His default on the court order poses the same problem.
     
  6. The practice of the profession of public accountancy is a sign of the confidence that is expected from clients as well as from those to whom are addressed accounting opinions, statements, certifications, etc..
     
  7. The public can expect high quality standards of integrity and probity when dealing with public accountants.
     
  8. Given the serious nature of the infractions and the accountant’s conduct, there exists a link between the offences committed and the practice of public accountancy.
     
  9. Considering the professional’s absence before the Professions Tribunal, the Tribunal chose to send the file back to the Disciplinary Council, so that it can decide on the appropriate sanction. 

THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED

  1. Even when a member of a professional order recognizes the existence of a link between the criminal offences committed and the practice of his profession, the disciplinary council is not bound by his or her position, and must draw its own conclusions based on the facts at hand. 
     
  2. The serious omission to respect the Criminal Code, or any other laws, risks denoting, for a public accountant, a lack of integrity and sincerity Dubé Légal inc., Montréal disciplinary law lawyers.