Thank you, Mr. Doyle.
Good afternoon Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen and members of the committee. My name is Michel Francoeur and I am the Director and General Counsel of the Office of Francophonie, Justice and Official Languages and Legal Dualism. I also supervise the lawyers from the Department of Justice who are responsible for the Contraventions Act implementation.
Before going any further, Mr. Chair, I would like to introduce my two colleagues who are here: lawyers Mathieu Langlois and Marie-Claude Gervais. If I do not have the answer to a question that is asked, with your permission, I would consult them. Otherwise, we could provide you with a written response, depending on the circumstances.
That being said, I am here today to give you a general overview of the administrative and financial measures taken by the Department of Justice to support the enforcement of Sections 530 and 530.1.
From the outset, I should point out that due to the sharing of constitutional jurisdictions between the federal government and the provinces, the federal government's role in implementing linguistic provisions in the Criminal Code is limited. While the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over changes made to the Criminal Code and related procedure, legal proceedings under the Criminal Code fall primarily within provincial jurisdiction. In addition, the provinces are responsible for the composition and organization of criminal courts.
This means that in the case of the provisions that you are studying, the provinces must ensure that they have the necessary institutional and human resources within their justice system in order to allow the defendant to stand trial in the language of his or her choice.
That being said, while complying with its responsibilities and within its means, the Department of Justice is working with its provincial and territorial partners in order to support them in enforcing the Criminal Code's language obligations.
The Department of Justice supports the provinces and territories through two initiatives: first, the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Initiative, and second, the Contraventions Act Implementation Fund. The Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Initiative has two components: the financial component which is the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund, and the non-financial component which is collaborative and consultation activities with certain governmental and non-governmental partners.
I would like to say a few words about the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund.
This fund was created to first and foremost meet the objective of improving access to justice services in the minority language and enhancing awareness and understanding of language rights among Canadian citizens and the legal community. It is for this purpose that the Department of Justice developed a training component in order to support people in the justice system who provide services to Canadians in the official language of their choice, particularly in the area of criminal law.
The training component of the fund is there to help people who already work in the justice system to develop and improve their language skills. To date, the support fund has financed professional development for various stakeholders in the justice system, such as provincial crown prosecutors, provincial court clerks, probation officers, and members of the judiciary, amongst others.
Allow me to illustrate with a specific example. In 2010, the creation of the Centre canadien de français juridique, located in Winnipeg, was funded directly by the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund in the area of training. Creating this centre allowed the institutions to consolidate their expertise to offer a broader range of training activities to different players in the judicial systems.
This way, each province and territory can find within their own court system francophones or francophiles who are willing to take specialized language training on legal terminology. These are professionals who are already familiar with the French language. Through the Centre canadien de français juridique, these individuals acquire and maintain their knowledge and skills, and build the necessary confidence to carry out their work in the defendant's official language when a request is made under section 530 and the ones that follow of the Criminal Code.
Moreover, this type of training activity can also be offered to anglophones and anglophiles in the court system of Quebec.
I would like to speak briefly on the second component of the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Initiative. The initiative also includes collaborative and consultation activities that allow the department to work closely with its partners. Within its Federal-Provincial-Territorial Working Group and its Advisory Committee on Access to Justice in Both Official Languages, the department offers room for dialogue and cooperation in order to bring up any questions, good practices, issues or challenges that affect access to justice in both official languages, including those related to language provisions in the Criminal Code.
I will now say a word or two about the Contraventions Act Implementation Fund. The federal Contraventions Act also falls within the scope of the objective of access to justice in both official languages. It is in this context that the department must also ensure compliance with the Criminal Code's language provisions.
The contraventions scheme is an alternative to the summary proceedings laid out in part XXVII of the Criminal Code for proceedings of federal offences referred to as regulatory. The federal contraventions scheme is implemented through the provincial criminal processes, which are incorporated by reference in federal law, as well as through agreements signed with the provinces or certain municipalities.
While the federal government uses existing provincial offences schemes to prosecute federal contraventions, it must ensure that all judicial and extrajudicial activities or services relating to federal contraventions are in accordance with the language rights of Canadians contained in section 20 of the charter, in section 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code, and part 4 of the Official Languages Act.
The Contraventions Act fund, which is a transfer payment, has been precisely designed to provide funding to provinces that have signed agreements with the Department of Justice, ensuring that necessary measures are taken to guarantee those language rights for persons who are prosecuted for contraventions of federal statutes or regulations. The fund supports a range of measures that typically include the hiring of bilingual judicial and extrajudicial court personnel, language training, bilingual signage and documentation, as well as costs incurred by provinces to manage and report on these measures to the Department of Justice.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the end of my presentation.
Thank you Mr. Chair. I will be pleased to answer any questions from the members of your committee, subject to the limits laid out by Ms. Soublière regarding our respective mandates.
Thank you.