Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, as the legal advisor to the Language Rights Support Program, I am here to answer the question that was put to me, that being the relationship between the Criminal Code and the objective of the Language Rights Support Program.
The objective of the Language Rights Support Program focuses on constitutional language rights. The Criminal Code is not made up of constitutional language rights, so what do we have to do with the issue? The short answer to that is the LRSP is on the fringes of the Criminal Code.
Those of you in the room who are lawyers know that constitutional questions can be raised in a variety of disputes. Those of you who are not lawyers may be wondering how someone can raise a constitutional question before a court. That may seem like a theoretical question, or at least on the surface, especially when we talk about constitutional law.
I'd like to refer you to a specific case. The applications we receive are confidential, but some applicants do give us permission to release information about their case. To really help you understand the situation, I would refer you to the Losier case, which is summarized in the blog on our Web site. Mr. Losier's case was heard by the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick.
What do we do? Our involvement is based on the following premise. Our objective is to advance and clarify constitutional language rights and given that those rights are relatively recent, many questions are asked, and yet little is known in the way of answers.
For example, what constitutes a communication and a service related to a criminal matter when it comes to a trial? As strange as it may seem, receiving a ticket or a search warrant from a police officer constitutes a service and a communication under section 20 of the Constitution Act, 1982. Many such questions are raised.
Why am I referring you to the Losier case? The test case in that situation was whether the active offer of services was a constitutional principle included in section 20(2) of the Charter. That means that the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick recognized that the active offer of services was a constitutional right implicitly included in section 20(2) of the Charter and implicitly expressed in New Brunswick's Official Languages Act. Furthermore, when that constitutional right is violated, the judge cannot consider evidence obtained in violation of the accused's constitutional language rights. That is an actual example to help you understand how we fit in to the big picture.
Applicants seek our assistance, sometimes for issues involving section 20 of the Charter, sometimes for issues involving section 19 of the Charter. On the subject of the delegation of the administration of justice, an example we can look to is the Contraventions Act, whereby the federal government gives the provinces funding to enforce the act.
I mention that example for your reference, but it does not come under our area of responsibility. Those kinds of cases where funding was provided happened before the LRSP was established. That, too, however, illustrates the interface between constitutional language rights and the Criminal Code.
On that note, I would conclude by pointing one thing out: numerous questions can be raised, but few answers have been given so far.