Mr. Chair, that's an excellent segue into my next set of questions. I'd like to know what “functionally bilingual” actually means.
We can see from the documentation that one of the qualifications for becoming a Supreme Court judge is that the individual must be “functionally bilingual”.
My fellow member, Mr. Schmale, just said that candidates had to be fully bilingual as one of the conditions of appointment. The minister said, however, that that wasn't the case. She said appointees had to be able to understand oral and written arguments, not necessarily be able to speak the other language.
In an attempt to ascertain exactly what that means and in going over the various statements made by government members that day, I came across a comment by Joël Lightbound that was quoted in the media. In reference to the issue, he talked about candidates even having to pass a test.
Does the minister agree that candidates must demonstrate that they are functionally bilingual, no matter what that means in reality, even if it's having to pass a test? Is that part of the plan, or is Mr. Lightbound merely speaking for himself?