Justice committee  I have nothing to add.

Justice committee  No. In fact, available judges are underemployed. The same goes for prosecution services and crown attorneys.

Justice committee  Yes. The Canadian Association of Provincial Court Judges and the National Judicial Institute provide training. In addition, provincial selection committees and the federal judicial selection committee must respect very specific and rigorous criteria. When a position of judge is a

Justice committee  In terms of court resources, I don't think there would be much difference. Alberta already has more bilingual judges and prosecutors than it needs, both federal and provincial prosecutors, and it's the same with judges. That's why they have to keep going back for training in Fren

Justice committee  Yes, almost exclusively. So it would all depend if the request is to have legislation...or stuff like that. Obviously I'd be speculating, so I can't really say. But in terms of the resources on the ground, I don't think it would make much of a difference.

Justice committee  Every judicial district in New Brunswick has bilingual judges and prosecutors, both federal and provincial, so it's not an issue.

Justice committee  There should not be a need for it.

Justice committee  The problem is that in this federation nobody counts a case the same way. Prosecutors will say that a case is against one individual, no matter how many charges. The police, for their own reasons, are going to say there is a case for each charge. Court administrators are going

Justice committee  So far it's been based on census data. There is a bit of an oversupply of bilingual judges or bilingual crown prosecutors right now. That is because of the issues I mentioned in my presentation with the accused persons not necessarily opting for a trial in their language. It's

Justice committee  I can answer that. In terms of the Public Prosecutions Service of Canada, our procedural manuals have very clear guidelines that specify that prosecutors must be capable of understanding the language in which the trial is taking place when it is a minority language.

Justice committee  It can be to an extent but each prosecutor must declare themselves incapable if that is the case. When we are hiring, and this is the case elsewhere in provincial services, obviously we make sure, through competitions and interviews, that the candidates are able to oversee a tri

Justice committee  I am the secretary of the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Heads of Prosecutions Committee. That committee, as well as the Association of Canadian Court Administrators, would be in the best position to direct you to individuals who could answer your questions. Those two organizatio

Justice committee  Yes. I can provide you with the list of the heads of prosecutions as well as that of the court administrators.

Justice committee  It has traditionally not been a problem. However, at the heads of prosecutions table, we are now hearing that it's becoming a bit of an issue in remote areas. It's not a problem in Quebec City, Montreal, and obviously in the Outaouais—the larger centres—but as soon as you go into

Justice committee  Yes, this problem was raised recently in 2012 before the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Heads of Prosecutions Committee. The acuity of the problem depends on what region of Canada you live in. Indeed, in certain provinces such as the Prairies, British Columbia, Ontario and the Ma