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32nd Québec Ombudsman Annual Report (2001-2002)
"Above and Beyond the Law"
Strict application of administrative standards often causes more harm than good
Québec, November 7, 2002 - The Québec Ombudsman, Pauline Champoux-Lesage, is to submit her 2001-2002 Annual Report entitled "Above and Beyond the Law" to the National Assembly today. In it, she decries the often severe consequences citizens experience when administrative standards and regulations are applied too strictly. The Ombudsman is in no way questioning the validity of these regulations or the need for them, but she deems it essential that they be applied with flexibility and openness in certain cases.
The Québec Ombudsman has had to intervene many times over the past year to ensure that administrators do not summarily dismiss facts justifying an exemption or merely an adaptation of the rule. Such cases range from a given individual's extraordinary circumstances to psychologically at-risk citizens for whom meeting a deadline, filling out a form or providing a document can be an impossible task and a source of extreme stress.
The Ombudsman would like to remind readers of the importance of upholding the spirit of the law in question and seeking appropriate solutions when extraordinary circumstances require them, in order to guarantee that individual rights are respected.
Another issue that has emerged from the complaints handled in 2001-2002 is the lack of information passed on to citizens. The quality of the information received is an essential part of the ability to exercise one's rights. In fact, for a law to be respected, it must first be understood. Thus, imprecise or incomplete information passed along by the Administration could deprive citizens of their rights.
The Québec Ombudsman asks that government departments and agencies be more vigilant with respect to these matters and that they make every effort to provide citizens with clear, precise and accessible information.
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