Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank you all for being here this morning.
You mentioned that, to gain access to justice, you have to be able to be understood or at least have the impression that everything you say is understood. However, there does not appear to be any mechanism for ensuring that, when judicial candidates say they are bilingual, they in fact are. One wonders whether some aren't stretching the truth a little to ensure they get a position. I don't know whether you will venture an opinion on this, but from what can be seen, one would say that some are stretching the truth a little.
Furthermore, to secure certain positions in the Public Service of Canada—let's call them customer service positions—if people don't pass an exam, if they don't qualify linguistically, they won't get that position. But these are merely customer service positions, providing a service in both official languages. These are often extremely trivial matters. It's general information intended for the Canadian public.
However, when it comes to appearing before a court to assert one's rights, there's no procedure assuring citizens that they can be adequately understood. All this is a little ironic. In the case of a simple general information service, we ensure that people are bilingual; if they don't pass the test, they don't get the job. In the case of protecting citizens' rights, we aren't required to ensure that the people who make the decisions are bilingual.
When you think of these two extremes, do you find that ironic? Are you prepared to venture an opinion on what I talked about earlier, the truth that people are stretching in order to get a position? Then I'd like to know whether the most recent judicial appointments made by the federal government—I'm thinking of New Brunswick in particular—offer francophones a guarantee that they'll be able to be served more in the language of their choice.
Mr. Fraser, Mr. Doucet and Ms. Aucoin, I'll let you answer.