We hear that question often. Criminal lawyers have told us that there are problems with court interpreters in some provinces.
It varies from one province to another. In some cases, the employees or the court interpreters are well trained. They are provincial employees, be it at the Department of Justice or in another department. These employees have a rather high level of bilingualism in the legal field. In other provinces, however, that is not the case. They call upon interpreters who do not have training in the legal field to interpret testimony or things of that nature.
Problems with court interpreting have been raised primarily in the western provinces, namely in Saskatchewan and Alberta, but also in other provinces, though to a lesser extent.
Two years ago, when we consulted court interpreters across Canada, most of them told us that there was a need for training and that it was a general deficiency. That is what we heard in many regions.
There is also another problem with court interpreters. When they are not provincial employees, they are generally people who do conference interpreting, in the health and legal fields. To do court interpreting, they must take training on their own time. So it is more cost effective for them to stick to conference interpreting. In some cases, it's a personal matter, they will simply prefer to not do any court interpreting, either because it does not pay enough, because there is mandatory training, or because the risks are too high.
The problem is clearly a reality in some provinces.