I think those are very fair observations. I would point out that other officers of Parliament, I'm thinking of the information and privacy commissioners at the provincial level, have a section in their act where if there's a conflict, for example someone seeks records of that body, there's an adjudicator under the statute who is brought in to do the job, and that's usually a judge or a commissioner in another jurisdiction.
While I totally agree there are those issues that may arise, I think they have been handled effectively elsewhere.
In your remarks you said, “Although the Official Languages Act allows me to intervene in legal proceeding initiated by complainants, they are the ones who are primarily responsible for pursuing the litigation and submitting the necessary evidence.”
I wonder if there might be a way for your act to be amended to allow you in circumstances where someone else is before the courts on a languages issue to take over the case.
That is an example under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Section 15 allows the commissioner in certain circumstances to take over a complaint. That may be a way to save a lot of money. I'll keep making the important point that you are not government. You are separate from government. Consequently, that may be a way to advance language rights in some circumstances. I wondered if you thought that might be worthwhile.