First, it is very important that the needs be assessed. We have not really determined to what extent the various regions of the country need bilingual judges. Nor have the language competencies of those who put forward their candidacy to become judges been assessed. The candidates do a self-assessment. They check one box if they are bilingual, and do not check it if they are not. One of the provincial chief justices changed his mind to some extent. He recognized that certain judges felt they were sufficiently bilingual to preside at a trial, but realized in doing so that they were not quite up to it.
In one province, a very bilingual judge got tired of having to abandon interesting cases to go and help out colleagues who admitted being incapable of presiding over trials with their less interesting cases. Following a complaint about that situation, the issue was acknowledged, a fact that had not really been recognized in the past. Because of the independence of the judicial apparatus, which I fully recognize, there was a certain resistance to those recommendations and to the very idea of a study. However, after a certain time, I think the judges themselves admitted that there were problems.