It is always difficult, or I should say a challenge, to balance the powers of the various provincial and federal bodies in the justice field. There is no constitutional obligation to have bilingual judges at all. The government that has just been elected undertook to appoint one bilingual judge to the Supreme Court, which will be bilingual in 2016.
I have a legal background and was a practising lawyer in my previous life. It was time we imposed this obligation on the highest court, whose role is to ensure that everyone's rights are respected. But how do we do that? I am pleased to hear the various departments are cooperating because this is the responsibility of several departments. In addition, there are all the various jurisdictions.
Is there any hope that bilingualism will be mandatory for judges of the Superior Court and the Court of Queen's Bench, right up to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court?