Former MP defends behaviour with dementia patient in tense cross-examination

During a tense 50-minute cross examination, Edmundston lawyer Bernard Valcourt clashed frequently with the prosecutor about his behaviour the day he was arrested by police in a local nursing home.

Valcourt insisted that an elderly resident of the Villa des Jardins wanted to hire him as a lawyer and police had no right to interfere with that.

"I'm the honourable Bernard Valcourt, and I respect the law," he said, referring to the title he retains as a former federal cabinet minister.

"I'm a member of His Majesty's Privy Council.… I'm not the kind of person who ignores the police and who doesn't follow the rules. That's not Bernard Valcourt."

This image, taken from a police dashcam video, has been entered into evidence. It shows Bernard Valcourt being taken to a police car by Const. Samuel Côté. (Provincial court exhibit)

Valcourt is accused of violating Section 129 of the Criminal Code on Oct. 4, 2022, when, according to the charges, he "voluntarily obstructed" two Edmundston city police officers and "resisted" them as they were trying to do their work.

On Wednesday, the trial was told staff were concerned that he was meeting alone with Colette Cloutier, a resident diagnosed with dementia, whose son Charles had power of attorney over her affairs.

According to staff testimony, there was a disagreement in the Cloutier family over her diagnosis and her money. Another son, Philippe, had contacted Valcourt and said his mother wanted to hire him to look at the power-of-attorney arrangement.

Colette Cloutier, an elderly resident of Villa des Jardins, was diagnosed with dementia and died in May. (Bellavance funeral home)

Nursing home director Diane Bouchard testified that when Valcourt insisted on staying, she called Charles to put him on speaker phone with his mother.

She said Valcourt cut off the call but he denied that, testifying he tossed the phone aside to protect lawyer-client confidentiality but did not hang up the call.

"She works there but she doesn't have the power to prevent a resident who has a right under the Charter of Rights to consult a lawyer," he said.

When Valcourt refused Bouchard's request that he leave Cloutier's room, she called police.

Their arrival led to a noisy, physical confrontation, which ended when the two city police officers handcuffed Valcourt and led him out of the facility.

Prosecutor Annie-Claude Breton repeatedly pressed Valcourt on how calm he had been when the police arrived and whether he told them he was refusing to leave.

"I'm calm when it's the time to be calm," Valcourt said.

"What is 'calm?' For me, 'calm' means nothing's happening, everything's quiet. It wasn't quiet, absolutely not."

He became "less calm" after one of the police officers needled him, repeatedly calling him a joker, he testified.

That officer, Const. Denis Bourgoin, testified Wednesday he did that to draw Valcourt's attention away from Cloutier, who was becoming agitated and alarmed by the commotion.

Valcourt's lawyer, Basile Chiasson, was granted his request to submit written closing arguments in the case. (Yves Lévesque/Radio-Canada)

But Valcourt testified Wednesday that Cloutier was lucid and told the two officers when they arrived that she was hiring him as a lawyer and had a right to speak to him — a right that is sacrosanct in law, he argued.

Cloutier could be heard making both statements on police audio played in court.

"I was trying to say [to the staff and police], 'Look, this makes no sense.' … I was surprised that someone like that didn't understand what I was saying."

Breton continued to push Valcourt to acknowledge that he didn't heed the staff's request that he leave nor the police's insistence that he leave, and that he refused the officers' requests to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.

They can be heard asking him to do so on the audio played in court.

"I never said I wouldn't leave," Valcourt responded. "I was trying to articulate that I didn't have to leave.… The police had no right to ask me to leave."

Judge Luc Labonté said he'll deliver his verdict March 28. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Valcourt was the last witness in the two-day provincial court trial.

Judge Luc Labonté granted a request from his defence lawyer, Basile Chiasson, to submit written closing arguments.

Chiasson said that was necessary because the facts in the case raised issues around lawyer-client privilege and new power-of-attorney legislation that took effect in 2020.

He'll submit his arguments in January, Breton will respond in February and Labonté said he'll deliver his verdict March 28.

Several Edmundston-area residents sat in to watch the proceedings, including some former college classmates of the 71-year-old veteran politician.

Valcourt represented the area as an MP from 1984 to 1993 and again from 2011 to 2015, holding senior cabinet positions in the governments of prime ministers Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell and Stephen Harper.

He was also provincial Progressive Conservative leader from 1995 to 1997, leading the party to defeat in an election campaign called shortly after he took over the leadership.