Thank you, Mr. Boissonnault.
For a francophone in a linguistic minority community, bringing proceedings in French is more expensive and takes more time. I can give you some practical examples. I talked to you about Béatrice's situation, but I can go even further.
AJEFO members often share anecdotes with me. For example, in Ottawa, express motions are processed on Friday mornings. The lawyer arrives; his documents are prepared in French. But once they get to the express motion, which lasts from 15 to 20 minutes, we find out that the judge is a unilingual anglophone.
What happens then?
We cannot pursue the process, because the judge does not understand the content of the documents. The 15-to-20-minute motion is delayed until the afternoon. This means in practice that the client, who has paid a lawyer to prepare the motion, will have to cover the lawyer's fees for a full day.
I can give you another example, a situation that happened in a court in Ottawa. This concerned a civil matter motion lasting an hour or less, for which we were entitled to a bilingual proceeding under the Courts of Justice Act. We called the court the day before the presentation of the motion and were told that no bilingual judge was available. The motion was therefore delayed three, four or five months.
For the client, the real consequence is that the lawyer, who was already ready, has to prepare a second time. This consequently implies higher costs. There are also more delays. Ultimately, the person who wanted to have his case dealt with in French suffers. Like Béatrice, this person can choose English or wait longer and pay more to have his case dealt with in French.