Justice committee  I think that we are clearly not ready to hold tests to evaluate the language skills of the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada. On the other hand, I believe that naturally, when a person understands French and English without help from an interpreter, it is a case of function

Justice committee  They can ask for them quite easily.

Justice committee  I would like to make a comment on the facility that judges have for learning French. Afterward, I will come back to your question. I think that this will help find an answer to your question. In the west of Canada, there are about 15 bilingual judges who have heard cases entirel

Justice committee  Thank you. The Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law is pleased to be here today. Allow me to briefly introduce our association. Seven francophone lawyer's associations comprise the FAJEF. Its mandate is to promote and defend the language

Official Languages committee  Members of lawyers associations could sit on the appointment committees. For example, it was considered important that a police officer sit on those committees. If we had members of lawyers associations, that would ensure a presence in that regard. As to whether information is g

Official Languages committee  There's the psychological aspect, but there's also the financial aspect. We know that, if ever the order is to start over, that costs quite a lot more. All that reduces access to justice.

Official Languages committee  It's thanks to the Court Challenges Program that we have more services in French. We need only think of our schools in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and elsewhere.

Official Languages committee  The appointment of judges poses a systemic problem. The system should be changed and objective criteria established to ensure that the superior courts are sufficiently bilingual. To ensure legal competency, the bar imposes a 10-year criterion in order to be eligible. As for langu

Official Languages committee  We have an objective criterion for evaluating a candidate's legal ability, that is to say that the candidate must have been a member of the bar for 10 years in order to be appointed judge. So it seems to me that it would also be a good idea to have an objective criterion for eval

Official Languages committee  I'd just like to add that the objective way that has been established to ensure legal competency is that you have to have been a member of the bar for 10 years in order to be eligible to become a judge. So it seems to me that perhaps we could also have an objective criterion to e

Official Languages committee  I'd simply like to add that the plan as such has been evaluated and that the evaluation is very positive. That was done as part of an external evaluation, and the evaluation is excellent.

Official Languages committee  It's the same thing.

Official Languages committee  I know a number. We have an association of French-speaking lawyers in Saskatchewan.

Official Languages committee  I support my colleagues' comments. Mr. Doucet talked about understanding. I did my first bachelor's degree in English. I studied law in French, and, when I started my master's, it took me a few months before I could start thinking about law in English. I think that examinations

Official Languages committee  I think they are organized more or less satisfactorily. Sometimes they bring in judges from another province to hear a case. They manage.