I absolutely want to discuss the accessibility of judicial positions. Bilingual lawyers could potentially have access to the bench.
I don't know if you are aware of the new judge selection process, but in the new form it says that candidates must have argued cases before this or that court, for example before the Superior Court in the case of Quebec.
Of course Canada is a vast country that comprises several regions. This week, the president of the Bar of Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Mr. Clément Massé, wrote to me as well as to several other members from that region about the process used to select judges. He said that the lawyers who practice in the regions plead in various types of courts, but not necessarily in superior courts or courts of higher instance. Consequently, they will not necessarily meet the requirements in the new process.
I don't know if you are aware of that situation. It must be the same thing in New Brunswick and throughout the country. When lawyers practise in the regions—and I don't want to call them regionalists or regional—they have fewer opportunities to plead before higher courts.
Have you heard about this?