There are really four levels of competence.
I am not one of those who started the program. I work in the languages sector.
Judge Finn started the program. She started from the principle that a judge does not really need to become completely bilingual to perform certain duties for which a certain knowledge of French is sufficient.
Thus, in our competence grid the person who has the first level, i.e. FJ1, should have a level of competence that is sufficient to preside over an undisputed single case, or an administrative hearing. It can be an adjournment, a plea or a request for an individual to plead guilty or not guilty.
There are judges who took the training who are now able to do that. Judge Finn's vision—and I think it is also Ms. LeBlanc's vision—was to clear up some of the backlog in the justice system.
If we can have enough judges with that linguistic level, we will have succeeded. However, at this time our sample is not large enough to say that this can be generalized. That said, we can see the results among the judges who take our training in Caraquet.
As for the other levels, the FJ2 level is higher than the FJ1. At that level a judge can preside over several successive hearings in a day, where the challenged elements are rather simple, but could require testimony; for instance, a bail hearing, or simple trials.
At the FJ3 level a judge is able to preside over the majority of hearings, but he could run into trouble if there was a disputed case involving several parties or several witnesses.
At the FJ4 level a judge can function in an environment where the vast majority of judicial activities take place in the second official language.
As you can see the FJ1 is not a beginner's level. The judge has to have learned French as a second language before it can be said that he or she has reached the FJ1 level.