Mr. Minister, you say that judges must be appointed on merit. Will you agree that an important part of the decision should be based on bilingualism in order to ensure that when a Canadian citizen appears before a judge, he or she will be fully understood without having to go through a translation system, even though the translators do their best? You will understand that in court, a person's emotional state varies depending on whether the person is speaking directly of there is a translation.
On December 2nd, 2009. See this statement in context.