Good morning. I am pleased to appear before you again to help you continue your review of the language provisions in the Criminal Code. As you know, I appeared here on May 27, 2013, when the committee began its review.
I would like to begin by introducing myself again. I am Renée Soublière, Senior Counsel and Litigation Coordinator in the Official Languages Directorate, which comes under the Public Law Sector of Justice Canada.
I am accompanied by Michel Francoeur, Director and General Counsel in the same directorate. Mr. Francoeur will outline the concrete steps taken by the Department of Justice in support of the Criminal Code language provisions. I am also accompanied by Robert Doyle, Chief of the Executive Secretariat with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. Mr. Doyle also acts as the national secretary of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Heads of Prosecution Committee and he will be able to answer any questions you may have about the implementation of the Criminal Code's language provisions.
To begin with, I would again like to describe the role that I play in the Official Languages Directorate, previously known as the Official Languages Law Section. I am part of a team of specialized legal counsel responsible for providing legal advice to the government on any issue of language law, especially with respect to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act and the Criminal Code.
The team is also tasked with developing the position of the Attorney General and the Government of Canada in language cases that go before the courts. Finally, my team is also responsible for providing opinions and advice on language policies, particularly with respect to any proposed legislative amendments affecting language rights.
As such, it was the Official Languages Law Section, as it was then called, that developed the policy directions that lead to the passage of the 1988 Official Languages Act, including the amendments to sections 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code. As you know, those provisions give accused persons the right to a trial in the official language of their choice.
It was also in that capacity that my team, along with our colleagues in the Criminal Law Policy Section, helped developed the legislative amendments contained in Bill C-13, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (criminal procedure, language of the accused, sentencing and other amendments), which was passed in 2008. I had the opportunity and the privilege to head up that projet and to participate in all of its stages, from developing the policy directions through the consultations to the drafting of the bill and its consideration in committee. I appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs on November 28, 2007, when it began its consideration of Bill C-13.
I felt it was important to once again describe the role and mandate of the section in which I work so that you will understand the limits on what I can say here today. I will be pleased to discuss the provisions in part XVII of the Criminal Code, to provide you with the context for the 2008 amendments and to answer any questions you may have in that respect. However, my presentation today will not deal with either the implementation or the enforcement of the Criminal Code provisions, since my team does not play any role in that area.
With the committee's indulgence, I will start with a general overview of sections 530 and 530.1. I will then explain the origin and content of the legislative amendments adopted in 2008.
Before doing so, I feel it is important to highlight four points.
First of all, as former Justice Bastarache of the Supreme Court of Canada said in Beaulac, sections 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code perfectly illustrate the progression of linguistic rights through legislative means, in accordance with subsection 16(3) of the charter. In fact, the federal Parliament, in exercising its power over criminal law and the criminal justice system, adopted a number of legislative measures designed to extend the linguistic rights of the accused before the courts, including sections 530 and 530.1.
Secondly, I think it would be helpful to point out the purpose of section 530. Again, according to former Justice Bastarache in Beaulac, section 530 is designed first and foremost to grant equal access to criminal courts to accused who speak one of Canada's two official languages, in order to help official language minorities preserve their cultural identities.
Thirdly, bear in mind that the right of an accused to be tried in one official language or the other is not new. In fact, the right of an accused to be tried in the official language of his choice was initially recognized in the first Official Languages Act, in 1969. In 1978 and again in 1988, Parliament sought fit to broaden the scope of an accused's linguistic rights and to clarify the conditions of a criminal trial to take place in the language of the minority.
On January 1, 1990, the provisions I'm referring to, sections 530 and 530.1, came into force throughout the country. Since that date, any accused person facing criminal charges can therefore be tried in the official language of his choice, regardless of where he is in the country. In concrete terms, that means that the various jurisdictions in the country must be in a position to respond to applications for trial in a minority language and have the adequate institutional infrastructure to provide services in both languages equally.
Fourthly, the purpose of the 2008 amendments was not to change the provisions substantially. The main objective of the 2008 amendments was to clarify certain provisions, to codify the current state of jurisprudence and to make up for certain shortcomings that had been identified in the jurisprudence and studies on these provisions.
Let's now move on to the specific content of sections 530 and 530.1. What are the rights and corresponding obligations set out in these provisions? I don't know if you have the provisions of the Criminal Code in front of you, but it would be helpful for you to have them at your fingertips.
Let's start with section 530.
Subsection 530(1) stipulates that, on application of an accused whose language is one of the official languages of Canada, the judge may grant an order directing that the accused be tried before a judge or judge and jury who speak the official language of Canada that is the language of the accused, or if the circumstances warrant, who speak both official languages.
Subsection 530(2) covers a situation where the language of the accused is not one of the two official languages. In this case, the judge, on application of an accused, may grant an order directing that the accused be tried before a judge or judge and a jury who speak the official language in which the accused, in the opinion of the judge, can best give testimony or, if the circumstances warrant, who speak both official languages.
According to subsection 530(3), as amended in 2008, the judge before whom an accused first appears shall ensure that they are advised of their right to have a trial in the language of their choice.
Before Bill C-13 was passed, only an accused who was not represented by counsel had the right to be informed of this right. Therefore, the 2008 amendment imposed on the judge the obligation to ensure that any accused, be they represented by counsel or not, were advised of their right to request a trial in the official language of their choice.
Subsection 530(4) allows the court before which the accused appears to issue an order under subsections 530(1) and 530(2), when the accused has not made a request within the deadline set out in the code.
Subsection 530(5) specifies that an order under this section that a trial be held in one of the official languages of Canada may, if the circumstances warrant, be varied by the court to require that it be held in both official languages, and vice versa.
Lastly, subsection 530(6) covers cases in which two or more accused who do not speak the same official language are each entitled to be tried before a judge or judge and jury who speak their official language. In other words, they would be tried together, but under subsection 530(6), there may be circumstances which could justify holding a trial before a judge or jury who speak both official languages.
Before moving on to section 530.1, allow me to mention the fact that, in 2008, subsection 530.01(1) was added. Under this new provision, at the request of an accused whose official language is English or French, the prosecutor must translate those portions of information or an indictment in the official language of the accused, who has the right to receive the translated documents in a timely manner.
Before subsection 530.01(1) was added in 2008, only the preprinted forms contained in part XXVIII of the Criminal Code were given to the accused in both official languages. The sections that were filled in by the informant were drafted and provided to the accused in the official language of the person who had filled in the form. Some courts ruled that it was inconceivable that an accused should not have the right to obtain such important documents in the official language of their choice. Consequently, they required that these documents be translated at the request of the accused.
Adding this new provision to the Criminal Code, by way of Bill C-13, helped to reflect the state of jurisprudence.
Let's now move on to section 530.1 and let us look at the provisions it contains.
First, the accused, their lawyer as well as witnesses, have the right to use either language during the preliminary inquiry and the trial.
Second, the accused and their lawyer can use either official language at the pleading stage, and during the preliminary inquiry and the trial.
Third, the witnesses have the right to testify in either official language during the preliminary inquiry or trial.
Fourth, the accused has the right to have a judge presiding over the preliminary inquiry or trial who speaks the same official languages as the accused or, when a bilingual trial has been ordered, who speaks both official languages.
Fifth, the accused has the right to have the prosecutor—other than a private prosecutor—speak the same official language as the accused or, when a bilingual trial has been ordered, speak both official languages.
Sixth, the court must provide interpretation services to the accused, their lawyer and witnesses, during the preliminary inquiry or trial.
Seventh, the record of proceedings during the preliminary inquiry or trial must contain a transcript of everything that was said during those proceedings in the official language in which it was said, the transcript of any interpretation into the other official language, if proceedings were indeed interpreted, as well as any documentary evidence that was tendered during those proceedings in the official language in which it was tendered.
Eighth, the court must make sure that the judgment or the decision, including the list of reasons, is made available in the official language of the accused.
Allow me now to briefly explain the context behind the 2008 amendments.
The implementation of the language rights provisions in the Criminal Code had created from time to time some legal and practical difficulties, as demonstrated by the case law that had developed over the years. A number of reports and studies by different stakeholders had also confirmed the need to improve and clarify some of the language of trial provisions in the Criminal Code.
In particular, in November 1995 the Commissioner of Official Languages published a study entitled, “The Equitable use of English and French Before the Courts in Canada”. This study concluded with 13 recommendations for strengthening and advancing language rights in the courts, and particularly before criminal courts.
The Department of Justice's response to that study was to prepare a working paper. In November 1996 a document prepared by our section entitled, “Towards the Consolidation of Language Rights in the Administration of Justice”, was published and widely distributed.
This document basically responded to the commissioner's recommendations with a number of proposals to be used as a starting point for public consultations. It served as a basis for public consultations, which were held from November 1996 to April 1998. Then, in May 1999 the Supreme Court of Canada issued its decision in the Beaulac case, which related specifically to the language provisions of the Criminal Code at issue in our initiative.
The Supreme Court in Beaulac confirmed that there indeed were difficulties inherent in applying and interpreting those provisions. The Supreme Court made specific comments on mechanisms for publishing the language rights of accused persons, on the time allowed for exercising the rights set out in sections 530 and 530.1, and as well, on the application of those provisions in the context of bilingual trials.
As a result of the court's decision, our recommendations were re-examined and substantially modified to reflect the new state of the law. We held consultations again on the content of the proposed changes, and eventually the legislative proposals made their way into a bill along with other criminal law related amendments.
The amendments of 2008 to the language of trial provisions were therefore the fruit of a lengthy process involving many different players. Their main goal was to propose workable and balanced solutions to a number of problems that had been identified and to help ensure the effective implementation of the language rights provisions of the Criminal Code.
I know that after our appearance last May, your committee communicated with the provinces and territories to ask them to provide you with their input on the implementation of the linguistic provisions of the Criminal Code, notably the implementation of the 2008 legislative amendments. I know that you received some responses. I also understand that some provinces will be asked to appear before the committee. I am sure that this will be extremely useful to you.
Thank you for your attention. I will now give the floor to my colleague Mr. Francoeur.
Thank you.