Thank you for your question.
For some researchers in the natural sciences and engineering, we do sometimes get the feeling that the applications are being evaluated differently when they are written in French rather than English. It is easier to find English-speaking evaluators anywhere in the world than to find French-speaking evaluators.
There is probably an evaluation that needs to be done. I know that in the past, it was done at the SSHRC, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. We may need to put together a picture of the situation now in order to determine whether that bias still exists.
Apart from that, I think the composition of the committees is very important. We have to make sure that the evaluators are bilingual, or systematically make sure that the number of francophones is equivalent to the number of anglophones when evaluations are done.
This is important because, sometimes, the aspect that is highlighted is different in terms of interpretation. When publications are in French, the number of journals and recognition of the journals can also be difficult to assess. It is important to consider all these variables when evaluations are done.