Secret trials are associated with dictatorships and not practiced in countries operating under principle of rule of law.
It remains unknown whether any other such secret trials took place in Quebec because this trial came to light only because the convict sought to appeal the verdict.
The Quebec Appeals Court had no docket number and no record of any trial to evaluate, so they invalidated the conviction in a ruling signed 28 February.
How such a secret trial could take place in Canada remains a burning question.
The identity of all involved, as well as the nature of the charge and the punishment meted out, still remain undisclosed.
All that is known about the furtive process was that a panel of the Court of Appeal invalidated the trial and verdict and denounced the procedure in a decision dated 28 February.
A secret trial means that a prosecutor and judge could send anyone away for whatever they want without review or oversight.
Quebec's Justice Minister Simon Jolin Barrette was asked about the trial last week but he claimed to be oblivious about the transgression. He has not promised to hold anybody accountable. Quebec's prosecutors office has yet to comment on the situation but should be forced to.
Francois Legault's CAQ party recently spent 100 weeks ruling Quebec by emergency decree, which allowed them to prounounce laws without being subject to regular parliamentary procedure. The CAQ has also been under fire for undermining education, by implementing CEGEP policies biased against certain schools. It now appears that the CAQ are also underming the legal system.
The little that is known about the secret trial is the defendant was an informant, or whistleblower. The prosecutor was likely so desperate to hide the defendant's testimony that he took the extraordinary measure of persuading the judge to make the proceedings secret, something unseen in a democracy with rule of law.
The informant, for example, might have had lots to say about misdeeds by the Surete du Quebec or some other important entity but the judge agreed to the convoluted arrangement that the public not become privy to such information.
The secret prosecutor could legally retry the case above board. In Canada - unlike the USA - a defendant can be tried twice for the same crime.