Official Languages Committee on Nov. 15th, 2016

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Boivin, thank you again for being here and for sharing your expertise. It is very helpful to us in updating the roadmap. This update is extremely important given all the anticipated benefits for official language minority communities.

My question is about training. At the start of your presentation, you stated that training is one of the pillars of the last version of roadmap, information being the second. Your recommendations regarding immigration draw a lot on these two pillars, namely, that there should be a strong focus on providing training and information.

With regard to training, you said that much progress has been made. I'm not sure how far we have come, but you said that much more training is now offered in both official languages—in French, but probably also in English in Quebec—to lawyers, jurists and judges, and that we must now focus on other sectors in the judicial system.

Can you elaborate on this? Do immigrants receive information in both official languages? The CliquezJustice.ca site is very user-friendly, easy to use. I see that it can be very useful. I will let you talk a bit about training.

[Daniel Boivin]

Thank you.

Much work has been done in this regard. For example, we work very closely with community colleges to ensure there are enough graduates to fill vacancies in the legal system. We also have to continue to ensure that faculties of law have the necessary tools to train future lawyers. That must not be overlooked. Right now, we are focusing on other aspects.

Police training centres also offer a great deal of training. We have to make sure that police officers are aware of the language rights of the people to whom they give tickets or whom they arrest later on. They must also be informed about the specific culture of francophone communities. This training is currently offered on an occasional basis at colleges whose mandate is to train police officers, for example, or translators.

This type of training will at some point have to be included in the curriculum of these institutions instead of being offered on an occasional basis only. This is an area we have to focus on now, as community colleges in Ontario are doing. We also have work to do with the other provinces.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

I have a supplementary question about the AJEFs.

You stated that some provinces and territories do not yet have that kind of association. Did they have one in the past or has there never been one at all? Why is there none? What can we do to enhance the presence of French-language jurist associations throughout Canada, while at the same time attracting francophone jurists, lawyers and judges to these provinces and territories, and offer training and services there? I have no doubt that these associations are very helpful. How can we address this issue?

[Daniel Boivin]

Some provinces had very strong AJEFs, but they are no longer as strong because they no longer have sufficient funding to keep them going. That is another issue though.

The other issue is that there are no AJEFs in some places. Newfoundland and Labrador, for instance, has never had one. There are many Francophone legal communities, but often their members are so busy giving advice to their community and being involved in other community groups that they don't have the either the time or the energy to create an AJEF and focus on it. They dabble in everything. They do everything and often have to rely on other resources to organize the francophone legal community.

One possible solution is to use the FAJEF, which has tools that can be transferred from one province to another. We have to use the francophone community, the organizations offering general services to the francophone community. We have to use jurists from neighbouring provinces. We have to coordinate the work of all these stakeholders in order to create synergy and sufficiently fertile group for an AJEF to be created later on. This facilitates access to justice in French in those provinces and gives the francophone legal community visibility in that province. This in turn increases the chances that young people will go into legal professions. It is about creating synergy.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

Mr. Arseneault now has the floor for three minutes.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Boivin, I have some brief questions and I would like brief answers, please.

I clearly understood that the association does not really play a direct role as regards immigration, in terms of promotion, recruitment, retention, and so forth. Its role instead is to make sure there are bilingual legal services, with all the stakeholders in the legal community. To go back to what my colleague, Ms. Boucher, said earlier, Quebec has civil law while it is common law in the rest of the country. Do you think that is a factor for immigrants who come to Canada? Do immigrants ask whether they are going to a province with civil law or common law? Or do immigrants not talk about this at all?

[Daniel Boivin]

Many immigrants choose Quebec because they are familiar with a number of pillars of the community. Many choose other parts of Canada for other reasons, such as geography, work opportunities, and so forth. They report significant stress owing to the fact that they are not familiar with these systems. That is where the legal information centres come into play.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

So the legal system does figure into their decision. In practical terms, we can focus on Canada's legal diversity and its two systems that people are familiar with. The fact that immigrants have access—limited in some locations but very strong elsewhere—to justice in both official languages is also important.

[Daniel Boivin]

It is certainly a selling feature. I was referring earlier to the two legal systems being a draw for university students. It should also be promoted to other people.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

We know that the targets for the proportion of francophones in Canada—or of anglophones in Quebec, who have the opposite experience—are not being achieved and that they are very low.

I would like to ask you something. As my friend, Mr. Samson, was saying, people in minority communities have to stay up late and get up early. Your association is already doing that. Do you think your association should be able to play a greater role in appealing directly to immigrants in order to familiarize them with all the stakeholders in the legal community, all the bilingual positions we need to fill, whether in corrections, in court reporting or in legal offices?

[Daniel Boivin]

Certainly, the FAJEF could sell the availability of jobs as well as the Canadian justice system, which already has great appeal among many other people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Boivin. It has been a good discussion. Thank you for your presentation on both topics. Thank you also for your comments and your answers to the questions.

We will break for a few minutes and resume in camera, since we will be considering the first part of our work plan for our report. The meeting is suspended for about 10 minutes.

[The meeting resumed in camera.]