These issues have been raised in the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages. So the problem has been clarified at the federal level. In Ontario, a report specifically on the situation in Ontario was prepared, notably by Justice Rouleau, who is a leader in access to justice. He found the same difficulty.
When a small community has a judge who is very functionally bilingual, but who is no longer available because of a trial or sick leave, for instance—and that's a situation we see as well—we need to “steal” the bilingual judge assigned to another community, which creates a domino effect that has an impact on all the communities. The waiting list for motions, requests or trials grows in each community.
The absence of one person causes a problem across the network. No matter how many people are involved, time adds up. Francophones then say that they don't want to wait for a solution to their problem and choose to move on to the English side. This domino effect is significant. The way to solve the problem is to ensure that there are enough bilingual appointments in every province.