He will sit in Haileybury
The Superior Court of Justice of Ontario has welcomed Hearst-based sole practitioner J.C. André Lehoux as a judge.
Lehoux will sit in Haileybury. He replaces justice James A.S. Wilcox (North Bay) as Wilcox elected become a supernumerary judge beginning August 6, 2025.
Lehoux commenced as a private practitioner in 2007, working from Northern Ontario. He has tackled matters involving criminal law, family law, real estate law, wills and estates, and civil litigation.
His clients have included Indigenous communities residing along the James Bay coast, and he has advocated for the disadvantaged through his community work. He once chaired Maison Arc-en-ciel’s board of directors, on which he sat for over a decade, and was on the Grand-Nord Legal Clinic’s board.
Lehoux was a Notre-Dame de Hearst Hospital Foundation contributor as well. Before he joined the legal profession, he was a clerk at a construction company and a day labourer at a particle board factory.
He pursued his bachelor’s degree in business administration at the University of Ottawa, obtaining it in 1991. He then obtained his bachelor of laws in 1994 and was admitted to the Ontario bar in 1996.
Attorney general of Canada and justice minister Sean Fraser announced Lehoux’s appointment.
“I wish Justice Lehoux every success as he takes on his new role. I am confident he will serve the people of Ontario well as a member of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario,” Fraser said.
Lehoux was assigned to Haileybury due to the chief justice’s internal court transfers.
Earlier this month, Robert W. Wadden and Karen E. Pritchard also joined the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario as judges sitting in Cornwall and Sault Ste. Marie, respectively. Moreover, former Court of Appeal for Ontario judge William Hourigan was announced as the inspector for Ontario’s police integrity and anti-corruption practices inspection last month.
