T. Thermitus: "Ras pa pedi" or How to provoke the wrong person
Alain Babineau ·
She is part of this Haitian lineage like Sanité Bélair, a revolutionary lieutenant nicknamed "La Tigresse," who faced the firing squad head-on and did not blink an eye.
The Protecteur du citoyen and the CDPDJ should have known this proverb before acting. I am not Haitian. I am, to borrow the title of a Robert Charlebois album, a perfectly ordinary "Black man" — a Black Québécois who met Tamara Thermitus about seven years ago.
Our many conversations and debates left me with one conviction: they did not know who they were dealing with. It is as such that I take the liberty of invoking a Haitian Creole proverb: "Ras pa pedi," in the sense that she belongs to that Haitian lineage like Sanité Bélair, the revolutionary lieutenant nicknamed "La Tigresse," who faced the firing squad and never blinked.
Justice Granosik establishes this himself at paragraph 2: Tamara Thermitus, distinguished lawyer (Ad.E.) 2011.
• Federal litigation lawyer for 25 years, architect of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement — the largest class action lawsuit in Canadian history — and principal drafter of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's mandate.
• In her Haitian lineage: Sanité Bélair, the revolutionary lieutenant nicknamed "La Tigresse," who faced the firing squad and never blinked. Ras pa pedi. They had not done their homework.
JUDGMENT — 2026 QCCS 1481 • April 29, 2026 The Superior Court DECLARES null the Protecteur du citoyen's final Report [par. 123–124]. With costs in favour of the plaintiff. Tamara Thermitus: "The annulment of this report is a first step. An injustice of this magnitude demands full reparation. That is the minimum justice requires."
WHAT THE JUDGE SAYS — SIX WORDS THAT CONDEMN
Justice Granosik uses six expressions that constitute, in themselves, a moral verdict as much as a legal one. On the real cause.
"The measures she was considering or attempted to implement provoked resistance from management and, ultimately, the complaints to the PC." It is the resistance to reforms — not Thermitus's failings — that generated the complaints.
"Inaccurate and misleading"
"To say that the investigation is 'for all intents and purposes complete' when the person concerned had not yet had the opportunity to be heard [...] is inaccurate and misleading." Exceptional language in the judicial vocabulary.
"Unprecedented"
"I doubt that such a precedent exists, so far outside the norm does this appear." Without precedent in Quebec jurisprudence.
Irreparable transgression
"The impact of this communication to the ultimate decision-maker, without Me Thermitus's version having been obtained and analyzed, constitutes an irreparable transgression of procedural fairness."
Witness credibility ignored
"The final Report contains no analysis or reasons regarding the credibility of witnesses [...] This absence of reasoning is so crucial here that it amounts to a transgression of procedural fairness."
The witnesses had their positions at stake. Thermitus had documented this. The PC ignored it. Conclusion: "The transmission [...] is puzzling. The process was thereby tainted. [...] the unreasonable nature of the final Report [...] leads to its annulment."
CHRONOLOGY OF AN ORGANIZED DESTRUCTION
February 2017 — Thermitus is unanimously appointed by the Assemblée nationale — the first Black woman to chair the CDPDJ. She inherits a dysfunctional institution: delays of 5 to 10 years to process a complaint, fewer than 50 annual cases before the Rights Tribunal [par. 5].
July 2017 — Thermitus and Minister Weil launch the consultation on systemic discrimination. It is precisely at this moment that the first complaints are filed. The coincidence is not accidental.
August 30, 2017 — Despite the legal confidentiality of the investigation, La Presse publishes "the president at the centre of a crisis." Leaks. Thermitus requests an investigation. The PC threatens her with legal proceedings [par. 16].
November 29, 2017 — The PC transmits Report 1 to the minister without having heard Thermitus. Judgment: "flagrant contravention," "inaccurate and misleading," "unprecedented."
November 29, 2018 — Faced with an unprecedented motion for removal, Thermitus resigns. The judge notes [par. 33]: since that date, she has been unable to find employment. Nine years of her life.
June 2019 — The Legault government appoints Myrlande Pierre, of Haitian origin, as vice-president of the CDPDJ — six months after having driven out Thermitus, also of Haitian origin.
DERRICK BELL — TWO THEORIES, ONE TRUTH
Dr. Derrick Bell (1930–2011), founding pioneer of Critical Race Theory, had foreseen all of this. Interest convergence (1980): the rights of Black people advance only when they serve the interests of dominant structures. Thermitus is unanimously appointed in 2017 — her appointment serves the government's image. As soon as she genuinely reforms, the convergence dissipates. The judge confirms this at par. 119.
Black expendability — The Space Traders (1992): Bell demonstrates that the rights and interests of Black people are expendable whenever that sacrifice serves the needs of white people. Thermitus sacrificed to protect the unjustified positions of management. Then replaced by another woman of Haitian origin, as if representation were an interchangeable part.
According to Dr. Bell's theory, by appointing a Black woman of Haitian origin six months after driving out another Black woman of Haitian origin, the Legault government accomplished two things: responding to pressure for representation, and shielding the institution from any accusation of racism in its handling of the Thermitus file. Representation as shield. Diversity as alibi. One Haitian woman to erase another Haitian woman.
This says nothing about Myrlande Pierre's qualifications, which are beyond question. It says everything about the institutional logic of replacement. Pitittig se tig — Thermitus was not an interchangeable part.
MEDIA COMPLICITY AND MISOGYNOIR
The leaks to La Presse, followed by the Verreault report based on anonymous witnesses never submitted to Thermitus, constructed a prefabricated narrative framework. Radio-Canada and La Presse amplified the accusations without ever asking the real questions: why were the testimonies anonymous? Why did the complaints coincide with the consultation on systemic racism? Why were the irregularities documented by Thermitus herself never covered?
The answer comes down to one word: misogynoir — the concept coined by researcher Dr. Moya Bailey to designate the specific violence directed against Black women, at the intersection of anti-Black racism and sexism. A Black woman at the helm of a white institution fit perfectly the "Sapphire" stereotype — domineering, aggressive, unmanageable. And the implicit subtext: she had been appointed because she was Black, a token, and not because of her incomparable qualifications.
THE IRONY OF THE NAMES — PROTECTOR AND COMMISSION
The "Protecteur du citoyen" • violated the rights of the very citizen it was investigating. Its own annual reports document recurring failures in Quebec's public bodies.
• In 2024–2025, its ombudsman lamented that citizens were "too often ignored by the machinery of the state."
• Marie Rinfret, who signed the now-nullified report, was herself denouncing in 2019–2020 institutional reports that "languish for months or years without results." She was describing, without knowing it, the treatment she was reserving for Thermitus.
As for the CDPDJ: • in July 2024, under the presidency of Philippe-André Tessier — the man who had said that Thermitus had resigned "of her own free will" — the Commission finally published a Strategy to Combat Systemic Racism.
That is exactly what Thermitus was trying to do in 2017. Tessier launches the agenda for which she was sacrificed.
2026 ELECTIONS — WHAT JUSTICE REQUIRES
Legault resigned in January 2026 with 10% support. Christine Fréchette (CAQ), Charles Milliard (PLQ), Québec solidaire and the PQ — all the parties that abandoned her in 2018 — are now seeking the votes of racialized communities. The Thermitus affair is a credibility test. Each party's response to the April 29, 2026 judgment will reveal what it stands for.
What justice requires:
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Full financial reparation — the damages action of nearly two million dollars may proceed [par. 38] under art. 49 of the Quebec Charter, RLRQ c C-12.
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Official public apology from the Assemblée nationale for having forced the resignation of a unanimously confirmed woman.
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Reform of the Protecteur du citoyen — guaranteeing the right to a full response before any transmission to the minister.
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Transparency of costs — how much did the defence of a now-nullified report cost, under the Access to Information Act, RLRQ c A-2.1.
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Institutional rehabilitation — the CDPDJ must recognize Thermitus's pioneering contribution to the strategy it ultimately adopted.
Ras pa pedi
They stole nine years of her life. They thought they were dealing with a symbol to be cast aside. They were dealing with a woman who had negotiated the largest class action lawsuit in Canadian history, who carried in her blood the defiance of Sanité Bélair.
In the tradition of the women of the Haitian Revolution — those women who faced the cannons and never blinked — Tamara Thermitus is not the kind to be crushed. She is the kind to rise again, to document, to argue, to build, and ultimately to prevail.
"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
JUSTICE FOR THERMITUS — JUSTICE FOR ALL Ras pa pedi Full reparation is the minimum justice requires.