Official Languages Committee on April 11th, 2017

[Michel Doucet]

Ms. Pellerin spoke earlier about the information service. I want to speak about the Association des juristes d'expression française, which is not an information service. Earlier you congratulated Mr. Bergman for his advocacy work. You said that we needed organizations like the AJEFNB who work to ensure the equality of both official languages. Unfortunately, since funding now seems to be information-related, the basic funding that supported advocacy for equal access to justice in both languages is now practically non-existent. Mr. Bergman spoke of an amount of $77,000. I think that the Association des juristes d'expression française du Nouveau-Brunswick does not even receive that much at this time. It has a part-time director general who also works for me.

As I explained earlier, not that long ago the AJEFNB filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages to challenge the lack of funding, which should be there pursuant to part VII of the Official Languages Act. The Office of the Commissioner agreed with them. That is in a report that was released recently. The AJEFNB should normally have discussions with Justice Canada to obtain the core funding that would allow it to do the work you referred to. That kind of work was being done at the time when you practised law in New Brunswick. However, the new philosophy that focuses more on legal information no longer enables the associations of French-speaking jurists to do this fundamental advocacy work.

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

In fact, part of this advocacy work is what I would call police work. Correct me if I am wrong, but the work involves monitoring rights, and determining where we have to make representations and remind the governments concerned that there are rights and laws that must be respected. In a nutshell, that is the work of the jurists' associations.

[Michel Doucet]

The AJEFNB, and many other organizations as well, used to play that role. Those organizations ensured, for example, that a sufficient number of bilingual judges were appointed and that the governments took both linguistic communities into account in developing measures to provide equal access to justice in both languages, so that bilingualism in the legal system did not lose ground. That was indeed an important part of the work they did.

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

Our committee represents the federal government. Do you think that if our committee were to make a recommendation, it should be that that funding needs to be restored or increased?

[Michel Doucet]

It isn't just that the funding needs to be increased, but we need to get that core funding back. Legal information is very important and funding for that purpose should be maintained. However, we also have to give the jurists' associations that want to do that work the opportunity to advocate to ensure access to justice, and bilingualism in the justice system. At this time, they do not have the necessary resources. Earlier you were speaking about volunteer work. That is how those associations work. They do not even have full-time employees.

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

What happens when there are legal challenges?

[Michel Doucet]

The work is done on a volunteer basis. We relied a great deal on the Language Rights Support Program. Now we are going to rely on the Court Challenges Program. I know that currently a lot of groups are waiting for the Court Challenges Program to be up and running in order to fund some legal actions. Obviously the ordinary citizen looking for justice cannot himself finance a legal recourse in a public interest case about linguistic rights.

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

Thank you. That is very interesting.

Ms. Pellerin, in Manitoba, there is an association that advocates for linguistic rights or access to justice in French. Do you have the same financial problems? Is the lack of funding there just as acute?

[Caroline Pellerin]

The Manitoba Association des juristes d'expression française faces the same financial problems. The New Brunswick association has one employee; in Manitoba, there are no employees, but just a volunteer board of directors. This is a serious problem for this association in Manitoba. That is why the Société franco-manitobaine launched the legal information centre project for the Manitoba Association des juristes d'expression française.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

Just a moment, please. I think I hear the bells, so I would like to make a suggestion.

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

Could we agree to continue for 10 minutes longer? Do we have unanimity?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

Just a minute.

We'll just verify if it's 30 minutes or 15 minutes.

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

It's 30 minutes long.

We'll continue for—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

We do need unanimous consent to work through the bells. Is there unanimous consent?

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

We will continue to work for 15 minutes. Then we have to have a hard break at that point for the bells.

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

It is just as good, if not better.

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

Do I have any time left, Mr. Chair?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

Yes, you have 30 seconds.

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

Thank you.

If Manitoba jurists had one request to submit to the federal government about funding, what would it be?

[Caroline Pellerin]

We would ask that the core funding be restored. This would give us more resources to undertake projects, either for the legal profession or to provide access to justice for those who seek it.

I'd like to correct a mistake I made about the funding. It is $300,000 a year, that is to say $300,000 for 2016-17 and then another $300,000 for 2017-18. I want to make sure that I am giving you the right information.

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

During how many years will you receive that funding?

[Caroline Pellerin]

We obtained it for two years, for a total of $600,000.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

Thank you.

Mr. Donnelly, you have the floor.

[Fin Donnelly, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank our witnesses for being here.

Mr. Doucet, you talked about the need for awareness of the decisions in both languages. Occasionally they don't say the same thing.