Subsection 16(1) reads as follows:
Every federal court, other than the Supreme Court of Canada, has the duty to ensure that:
(a) if English is the language chosen by the parties for proceedings conducted before it in any particular case, every judge or other officer who hears those proceedings is able to understand English without the assistance of an interpreter;
(b) if French is the language chosen by the parties for proceedings conducted before it in any particular case, every judge or other officer who hears those proceedings is able to understand French without the assistance of an interpreter; and
(c) if both English and French are the languages chosen by the parties for proceedings conducted before it in any particular case, every judge or other officer who hears those proceedings is able to understand both languages without the assistance of an interpreter.
We are talking about understanding the language, not about the fact that the person will never be allowed to use an interpreter. It is important that those people understand what is being said without the assistance of an interpreter.