Regarding training for judges, there is a very good program in New Brunswick offered by the Shippagan campus, under the direction of Judge Finn. This program is offered to judges nationally. Anglophone judges go there to experience total immersion in French. It is a good program. If I were with the federal government, I would multiply the number of programs of that type and provide funding for them.
If I were Prime Minister tomorrow morning, on the justice front, I would pass a law requiring that justices of the Supreme Court of Canada be bilingual when they are nominated. This would entrench that requirement.
I would also see to it that more training be given to officers of the court and to judges, in both official languages, so that the Canadian justice system may indeed be bilingual and not dualistic.
Finally, I would provide funding to law faculties. I'm preaching for my own bailiwick here, even though I will be retiring from the law faculty on July 1 and will no longer be there. Be that as it may, the federal government should provide funding to law faculties so that they can make their students more aware of language rights. In many law faculties that is never taught. This funding would also be used to provide training to these future jurists, who will be applying Canadian laws, so that they have a better understanding of both Canadian systems, francophone and anglophone, and to allow them to become bilingual. It would be a commendable initiative on the part of the federal government to grant this funding to advance bilingualism in the justice system in Canada.