I've been a lawyer in Quebec for 40 years. No, I'm not old. I've been a lawyer in Ontario for 37 years. Maybe that made me old. Every few months a client comes to see me who says, “Mr. Bergman, I need to sue the Government of Quebec” or “I need to sue a city in Quebec” or “I need to sue a government agency in Quebec. I'd like to hire you because I've heard that you have an excellent reputation.” That's a bit of marketing, by the way. “But I'm very concerned that because I'm going to litigate with a French institution, I'd be better off with a French lawyer, because maybe the judge or the government or the other lawyers or the system or the fonctionnaires or the greffier will hold it against me that I, an anglophone, have hired an anglophone lawyer.”
This is the reality on the ground. To this client, this type of guy, I always say, “You're wrong. That is incorrect. It doesn't matter whether I am an anglophone, a francophone, a Martian. It doesn't matter. I'm a lawyer.” But people perceive their environment in that sense. I'm sure that's a common experience throughout this country, whether it be in English or French.