I fully support what Mr. Doucet just said. Let me add that the problem with the SAANB decision had to do with the reasons for the decision that made a restrictive interpretation of subsection 19(2) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. When we look at this more closely, it truly seems to be devoid of any sense, because the Supreme Court, at the time, seemed to be saying that official languages basically had the same value as other languages. Here, we must note that the right to be heard—not necessarily the right to be understood—is a right that also exists in section 14 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms when dealing with certain court procedures. Thus, the legislator, or Parliament, saw it fitting to give, for principles of what we call natural justice or fundamental justice, to every person under the court's jurisdiction the right to be heard. Therefore, this applies to all languages. However, when we are dealing with official languages, it is more than an issue of fundamental justice. Besides, this is what I wanted to say earlier, with regard to different kinds of rights.
There is a fundamental difference between official language rights and other fundamental rights that exist. So to answer Mr. Murphy's question as to whether or not today the right enshrined in the charter that anyone appearing in front of the Supreme Court, or any court for that matter, has the right to be heard in his or her official language of choice encompasses the right to be understood, I would submit that in fact it does include the right to be understood; otherwise, there is no value whatsoever to section 19 of the charter, because you already have section 14, and the charter cannot contradict itself and cannot speak for no reason. That, in my mind, is the state of law if it should appear in front of the court again.