Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have five amendments in the next four clauses. They're not amendments I thought up; they came from the witnesses. I think they're very minor points.
Basically, all five amendments make clear the wording to protect that the witness gets fair treatment in their official language. I'll explain each one as they come along, but I'm happy to hear what the witnesses have to say, and then the members can make their own opinions.
The first one, this amendment, only adds the word “may”, and that's the only difference. What the clause basically said before was that if there are witnesses who have different languages, then you have to have a bilingual trial. But a bilingual trial may not be the fairest in all cases; in fact, it may not be possible. You may not have bilingual prosecutors and judges, or it may prejudice one of the witnesses because most of the trial would be in the other person's language. So instead of saying you have to have a bilingual trial when you have witnesses, it says you “may” have a bilingual trial, because you may also have two unilingual trials if that turns out to be more practical or fair. It was suggested by two of our witnesses.
I'm happy to hear from the department.