I would say that a larger number of judges does not necessarily mean greater intellectual capacity. Conversely, it is not because there are fewer judges that their intellectual capacity would be weakened. I certainly would not dare say such a thing about the members of the Supreme Court of Canada.
I would say that the fact of having judges who understand the language being used or both official languages would in fact lead to a far more active and unhindered debate. If a judge must depend on interpretation or translation, it serves as a crutch. That judge would not have a comprehensive understanding of the debate.
Again, people do their best through translation and interpretation, but at the end of the day, as I mentioned earlier on, meaning can be very specific. It doesn't always happen, but it may happen that a specific tone or meaning behind a word could be lost in translation. Interpretation is very quick, especially when representations are being made. It is very easy therefore to lose the tenor or the force of an argument, especially when one has to make the added effort of interpreting a bilingual text.
So, yes, I do believe there would be fewer judges. Would that mean a decreased intellectual capacity? Absolutely not. On the contrary, I believe the debate would be even more fruitful and productive, because there would be no need to explain to colleagues who did not understand that the translation was not correct, or was in some way lacking. We would have justices who would have fully heard the representations made by counsel.