Evidence of meeting #34 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was interpreters.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bardish Chagger
Mr. Hanley, that was a great first appearance at PROC. Thank you.
We will now go to Madame Gaudreau.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
From what I see, if we had the technology, the next generation, and the available resources, I think we would have a consensus around the table. The information we have received clearly shows the rise in problems caused by interpretation and the declining availability of our resources. Choices will have to be made, and they will be political choices. I am anxious to see what will happen once the documents have been tabled.
Dr. Tse, I am going to offer you one minute to conclude what you had left to say in your opening presentation. I think you had one more item to present. Just before that, however, I want to make sure I have understood something correctly. Did you say that you had never had interpreters as patients before, and that now you do have?
12:50 p.m.
Otolaryngologist and Neuro-Otologist, Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
I've never seen a single interpreter as a patient, and I still have not to this day, although I understand that the nice lady who spoke to me outside will be contacting my office.
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Right.
While you are a scarce resource, I would like to know about your colleagues. Given the nomenclature that must surely exist when it comes to recognizing acoustic shock problems, I imagine it affects quite a few people. Have a significant number of interpreters consulted your colleagues about a problem of this type?
12:50 p.m.
Otolaryngologist and Neuro-Otologist, Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Before today, I did speak to one of my colleagues who is also a neuro-otologist at the hospital. We're the only two at the hospital there. He has never heard of this problem before, or the problem known as ASI.
12:50 p.m.
Otolaryngologist and Neuro-Otologist, Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Obviously, as I mentioned, we've treated noise damage in the past.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I am sure there is information you have not been able to submit to the committee today, so I would like to offer you the little speaking time I have left to let you tell us about it. I think you have written a document, but it has to be available in both official languages for us to be able to receive it.
And now I have no more time left.
In that case, I would like you to provide us with your document in both official languages, please, for the purposes of our report.
Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I really appreciate the testimony today. More importantly, I really appreciate the incredible work that the interpreters do in this House. They are so kind, and they do such a great job of making our voices understandable to people who speak one of the official languages. I am always grateful to them. Personally, they've always been very good to me.
I think we have to take what we're hearing today really seriously. I've had many conversations with interpreters, and I hope today that we really do make sure that our recommendations clearly support what interpreters need in order to do their work as effectively as they do it now.
I have one last question for you, Professor Seeber. I'm coming back to you again because I'm still trying to wrap my head around this cognitive load. Could you talk about what you've seen from your own experience? Has it become more of a widespread issue or something more impactful because of the pandemic? Is there a direct correlation to this? What can you tell us about that?
Thank you.
12:55 p.m.
Professor, University of Geneva, As an Individual
I would bring that back to the studies we've run and the results we've gathered, rather than anecdotal evidence that I might have seen in walking about interpreting booths and behind the scenes. I think there is one result that should concern everybody who sits in the room and who listens to interpretation. It is one whereby deteriorated sound quality leads not necessarily to something that sounds off, and not necessarily to something that is off stylistically, but to something that is missing important—or not important—content.
When we do not know, as people sitting in the room relying on interpretation, whether the interpreter is actually able to provide all of the content, then I think I would leave that in the hands of people who do research into politics and other fields to see whether that is something you would deem appropriate or acceptable. That, I think, is one of the big and obvious dangers for the people in the room.
For the people in the booths, I think we still need to find out more about the extent to which increased and sustained cognitive load or overload might lead to medical manifestations or physiological manifestations. At this stage, we do not have any real long-term study. We don't have any longitudinal study. Even our study only had exposure on task for 40 minutes, with a 15-minute break every 10 minutes, which is far less than the average interpreter has to do in a working day.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bardish Chagger
Thank you so much for that answer.
On behalf of PROC committee members, I want to thank the witnesses. Thank you for joining us and for the extent of the information you have shared.
I would like to point out that Mr. Fergus, Ms. Gaudreau and Mr. Berthold asked questions for which we requested answers in writing. We would be grateful if you will take the time to send them to the clerk.
With that, I will wish everybody a good day. We'll see you next Tuesday for PROC again.
Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.
Keep well and safe, everyone.