Official Languages Committee on Nov. 22nd, 2016

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

However, the translation centre is not specialized in that, correct?

[Antoine Aylwin]

That's true, but there's also the issue of delays. If the trial level decision is not in the requester's language, it is possible that the person in question may receive the translation after the appeal period.

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

So Quebec's regulations should be changed, and that falls under provincial jurisdiction.

[Antoine Aylwin]

The current process at the Shared Services Centre of Quebec (CSPQ) is problematic in terms of quality, the delay for the revision by a judge and the delivery of the judgment.

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

In the time you have to submit the grounds for appeal, no potential translation requests are factored in. Is that right?

[Antoine Aylwin]

Yes.

The Quebec ombudsman has prepared a report on that. The Government of Quebec then agreed to compensate someone who had been prejudiced by delays in translation.

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

However, that person did not have access to their appeal. They were compensated.

[Antoine Aylwin]

In fact, the person had to pay extra fees to file the appeal because they had to do so before they received the translation of the judgment.

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

I have one minute and I'll ask one last question quickly.

Until your translation issues are resolved by experts, let me mention that New Brunswick has the Legal Translation and Terminology Centre. There are prominent jurists in Quebec, but there are prominent translators in New Brunswick.

[Some hon. members]

Ha, ha!

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

Along the lines of what my colleague Mrs. Vecchio was saying, I must say that, in New Brunswick, we do almost everything correctly.

Having said that, I'd like to know what the federal government can do for you. How can assistance be targeted so that it goes to the right place, while reflecting the needs of all the provinces for the same reasons?

[Antoine Aylwin]

I can start by giving you the numbers on the funding that was granted, because I think I forgot to do so.

In 2010-2011, the government provided $200,000; in 2011-2012, $200,000. Then there was a phasing-out of funding: $70,000 in 2012-2013, and $50,000 in 2013-2014. Earlier, I mentioned that we translated more judgments, and that's because of the financial assistance.

SOQUIJ has a centre of expertise in legal translation. That centre works well and quickly with the courts. It was possible for five Court of Appeal judgments to be issued right away in both languages through a partnership between the two. SOQUIJ's work is therefore recognized. However, it does not have sufficient resources to translate more than 1% of the Court of Appeal's rulings.

To answer your question, I think SOQUIJ should be receiving funding because the translation has to be of high quality. There are delays right now, and the judges are aware of that. This would lead to a satisfactory result for everyone.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Aylwin.

Mr. Choquette, you have the floor.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to the witnesses for being here today to talk about access to justice.

I know your priority is translation, especially for jurisprudence, but I'd like to talk to you about two other issues. I'll come back to the main topic later.

The first thing I want to talk about is access to justice in the Supreme Court.

For a long time, Supreme Court justices have been required to be bilingual. The Barreau du Québec is also in favour of that. Now there is a policy that requires it, but there are still many organizations, if not the vast majority, that call for legislation to ensure the continuity of this bilingualism policy in the Supreme Court .

What do you think about that?

[Antoine Aylwin]

I would say that the outcome is much more important than the process.

We have recently applauded the fact that the government has finally heard the requests for bilingualism to be part of the criteria for the Supreme Court appointment process. There was some debate about what was meant by “bilingualism”. For us, it is clear: judges must be able to converse in French. Being able to understand French is not enough. They must also be able to speak and write in French. That's what bilingualism means to us.

Yes, passing legislation would be a way of ensuring the continuity of the obligation until the House of Commons changes its mind. As you know, such a piece of legislation could be amended by the same legislative body.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

You talked about resources. You explained that the federal government used to allocate resources to SOQUIJ. But those resources have dwindled in the last four or five years, correct?

[Antoine Aylwin]

That grant was a one-time deal. There was an annual amount of $200,000 for two years. The funding was then phased out over two years to bring it all back to zero.

However, SOQUIJ had begun to translate the judgments before that. It started the work in 2003. When federal assistance was provided, much more work was accomplished, thanks to those resources.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Right now, SOQUIJ no longer has a federal grant. That's my understanding.

[Antoine Aylwin]

That's right.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

How long has it been since the grant has been received?

[Antoine Aylwin]

It's been since the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Since 2013-2014, there has no longer been a federal grant.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Why?

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Why is there no grant anymore? I don't know. Since then, nothing. That is my understanding. Therefore, ensuring compliance with deadlines and quality translation is an additional burden.

[Antoine Aylwin]

There are actually fewer services. We have gone back to the basic services provided before we received the federal assistance.