Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have a number of questions for the minister. I probably have enough for an hour, but I doubt the Chairman will grant me that. So I'm going to try to get to the point.
I'd like to talk to you once again about the use of French at the Immigration and Refugee Board in Montreal. You remember a case I've spoken to you about on a number of occasions in recent months in which a lawyer and his client were denied the right to obtain evidence in French, even though they managed to change the language of the proceedings to French following a long battle.
At the time, you told me that the decision was being made and that you didn't want to interfere in a trial, as it were. Personally, I wasn't satisfied with that answer. Without trying to influence a judge, you could at least have influenced your colleague at Public Safety and asked him to have the Border Services Agency agree to proceed in French since it was one of the two parties before the court.
A judgment has been rendered, and the board member has completed his work. In our opinion, and in that of all those who defend the French language in Quebec, that judgment has set a dangerous precedent. Board member Dumoulin, in his explanation of his refusal to have the evidence translated into French, said that the lawyer did not demonstrate that his client had suffered any prejudice as a result of the fact that he was unable to obtain the evidence in French. In my opinion, that's unacceptable. In English, they say rights are rights are rights. If you have a right to proceed in French, you have a right to that. You don't have to demonstrate any kind of prejudice.
The ball is clearly in your court because now a political decision has to be made. The lawyer in question, Mr. Handfield, has filed an appeal with the Federal Court solely on the French issue. In Federal Court, it will be Justice Canada lawyers who represent you personally, Mr. Kenney, Minister of Immigration, and not the representatives of the IRB.
What instructions will you be giving your counsel? Will you tell them to fight to uphold the decision of Board member Dumoulin or to concede the dispute to Mr. Handfield?