Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Official Languages for inviting me to meet with it today. My presentation is in two parts. First, I'm going to talk about the legal framework for access to justice in Canada's two official languages.

Official Languages committee  The candidate's application form is a matter of self-assessment. Candidates themselves decide whether or not they are bilingual. Earlier in my practice, I appeared before a judge, and neither counsel was sure that judge understood French very well. And yet the judge was convinced he understood it.

Official Languages committee  You may not like my answer. I'll simply say that it hasn't improved, but it hasn't gotten worse either. That problem has been around in New Brunswick for a long time, but its proportions have remained the same. It's improved in the Court of Appeal in the past 10 years, I have to admit.

Official Languages committee  I wasn't trying to say that it was cheating on the part of candidates, but that people often tend to overestimate their knowledge of the other language. If anyone had to evaluate my English, some people would say that I'm not completely bilingual. As for the other aspect you talked about, that there are still situations in which we aren't directly understood in our language, the Supreme Court is the exception in the Official Languages Act.

Official Languages committee  In the case of New Brunswick, the answer is no because New Brunswick's Official Languages Act specifically provides that judges presiding over a court in New Brunswick must be able to hear and understand all stages of the proceeding without the help of translation. However, a problem arises.

Official Languages committee  I can't state an opinion on them.

Official Languages committee  That's often the problem: after the translation, if the judge wants clarification and to ask the lawyer a question, in the time it takes to get the translation and to be able to ask the question, they've already moved on to something else.

Official Languages committee  I would simply like to point out that the example I gave occurred at a time when three judges weren't bilingual. I didn't say those judges hadn't understood. I simply explained that I subsequently wondered about the situation. When the ratio was five judges to four, I wondered whether the situation would have been different if I had pleaded my case in English.

Official Languages committee  I've already asked myself the question, and the answer is no.

Official Languages committee  With your permission, I'm going to issue a minor warning. I agree with Mr. Tremblay when he says that civil procedure is a provincial jurisdiction and that criminal procedure is a federal jurisdiction. Judicial appointments are a federal jurisdiction. For example, the appointment of Supreme Court justices is the responsibility of the federal government.

Official Languages committee  I've always found it somewhat odd that these obligations are imposed on all the federal courts and that this exception is made for the Supreme Court of Canada, the highest court in the land. That's why I too am in favour of an amendment to this provision to ensure the appointment of bilingual judges to the Supreme Court.

Official Languages committee  I wasn't talking about a recent case. I cited an example that occurred at the start of my career. I would like to say that the beginnings of my career are quite recent, but that goes back a number of years now. So it was a case that occurred at the start of my legal career. We had started a trial in French, but in the middle of the first hearing day, the judge himself admitted that he understood, but perhaps not enough.

Official Languages committee  It happens often when I have to plead language cases in other provinces. We have to plead them in English, even though the witnesses are francophone. That can happen in New Brunswick. I personally try to do it as little as possible because I represent francophone litigants.

Official Languages committee  What I simply meant was that there was a time when there were many more unilingual judges on the Supreme Court of Canada, a time when virtually the majority of justices in the court could be unilingual. Not so long ago as well, barely four or five years ago, there were three or four judges who could not function in French.

Official Languages committee  I would simply like to add that there is always the psychological aspect for the litigant in that kind of situation. Mr. Tremblay said that there weren't any complaints. I know very well that, last week, I could have filed a complaint concerning a federal court. However, the client too stands before an imposing, large structure, and he doesn't want to file a complaint.