Thank you.
I think we spoke to this during our appearance before the committee. There are basically three major principal objections to the amendment as moved.
The first is that the provinces were not consulted on such a concept. What we told them as we went about explaining the thrust of the bill is that it would bring about changes as already recognized in the case law and it would clarify the code. So the case law, as it currently stands, and the interpretation of the existing code provisions provide for a translation upon request. So this would be a financial burden of some consequence for the provinces if the amendment were adopted.
On the issue of equal value, we also spoke to that issue. We have in Canada a situation on the ground that the Commissioner of Official Languages himself points out regularly: there are so many millions of francophones who do not speak English and some many millions of anglophones in Canada who do not speak French. Among these people are police officers on the ground who write the original documents that are the key documents for the indictment, and they write them in the only language, in many cases, they can use. To provide the translated version of that originating document with equal status, in our view, introduces some uncertainties into the criminal justice system. It provides for additional arguments by the accused wherever there might be discrepancies, and it essentially would create what might be fairly described as additional loopholes.