Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to thank my colleague for his comments. First of all, I agree with him that there are many litigants and lawyers who speak only English or French or who write in English and speak another language, whether it be an indigenous or other language. That's all true. However, we're talking here about appointing commissioners who will play a quasi-judicial role. If we want all these people to whom Mr. Garrison refers, lawyers and litigants who are unilingual English or French, or people who speak several languages but neither official language, to have access to a fair judicial review, we at least have to ensure that the commissioners can work effectively in both official languages.
If a commissioner speaks Cree in addition to English and French, so much the better. Whether it's Italian or any other language, that's desirable—