Mr. Chair, I first want to thank you for inviting us to speak before the committee as part of the study of the full implementation of the Official Languages Act.
Our presentation is divided into three parts. First of all, I would like to talk to you briefly about three of the requests included in the action plan we submitted to the federal government. You have all received the reference document. Our plan is complete. My colleague Ms. McLaren will then speak about challenges and solutions regarding the standardization of common law in French. Lastly, Mr. Rémillard will speak about the measurement and certification of legal-related language skills.
I will get right to the point and address the requests submitted by the RNFJ to the federal government.
With regard to the first request, we ask that, as part of the new action plan for official languages, the federal government adopt a public policy on equal access to justice in both official languages. In this public policy, we believe that the federal government should affirm its objectives with respect to equal access to justice in both official languages. It should also formulate the principles of collaboration with the provinces in the area of justice, taking into account the constitutional and legislative framework.
It is also very important that the federal government recall that in criminal and family law—and here I am speaking specifically of divorce and conditions of marriage—we must stop talking in terms of linguistic minorities. The Beaulac decision was very clear on this subject. It is rather an issue of two official language communities that are equal. Wherever I go in Canada, I hear people talking about minorities and they say they want to serve them. In criminal and family law, we don't talk about minorities, but about two equal communities. This is our first request.
As for our second request, we believe that federal departments and agencies should really increase their participation in the federal government's multi-year action plan. We propose that the following departments and agencies in particular—but there could be others—also participate in the action plan: the Canada Border Services Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Correctional Service of Canada, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, and Public Safety Canada. The goal here is more efficient use of public funds.
Our field is training and the development of linguistic tools. The numbers are small. If these departments and agencies also participated in the action plan, the training work would be greatly facilitated. We are talking here about participation only with regard to training and linguistic tools. The other duties of these departments and agencies are not at issue.
The two requests I have just mentioned obviously have a significant impact. We believe that it will be necessary to have a point within the federal government for horizontal coordination of all matters relating to justice. We recommend that the federal government assign responsibility for this coordination to Justice Canada's official languages directorate. This will have an impact on vote 1.
With regard to the third request, we recommend that the federal government invest in structuring initiatives. We are aiming at a systemic corrective action. With one-off, short-term projects that have no effect on the system, it is difficult to advance equal access to justice. In the plan we submitted to you, we have formulated six areas of action that in fact include a systemic approach in the field of training and tools. This begins with standardization of common law in French. Ms. McLaren will speak about this in a moment.
The measurement and certification of legal-related language skills will then be discussed. Mr. Rémillard will address this topic in a few minutes. We will then talk about tool development, training of jurilinguists, on-the-job training, and lastly, post-secondary training.
To conclude, I remind you that the RNFJ works in the field of education and development of tools. We want at all costs to avoid unreasonable delays related to language issues within the justice system and in criminal law. Following the decision in the R. v. Jordan case, we would never want to see language issues cause such a delay.
We also believe that language issues should not cause delays in other areas of law where we have rights in the different provinces. Justice system users who experience these delays often see them as a denial of justice. We therefore want to ensure that the necessary tools and training are available, so that the service can be offered at the same time.
We conclude by reiterating our objective, namely that the justice system in Canada have the institutional capacity to function equally well in both official languages.
On that note, I yield the floor to Karine McLaren.