Thank you.
I'm going to talk about the Supreme Court of Canada right away. FAJEF considers it essential that all the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada be bilingual, for various reasons. English and French have constitutional or statutory status in the federal legal and judicial systems as well as in all the provinces and territories of Canada. The English and French versions of statutes are of equal weight at the federal level, in Quebec, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Ontario and in the three territories. In the circumstances, we feel that the ability of the nine Supreme Court justices to clearly understand both statutes is essential.
Canada's Official Languages Act already acknowledges the importance of being understood without the aid of interpretation in federal tribunals such as the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal. The same right should apply to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In Canada, French enjoys equality of status and use with English. No francophone litigant should therefore be heard through interpretation before Canada's highest court. For these reasons, FAJEF requests that bilingualism become a mandatory criterion for appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada.