Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary is very confused. He is talking about the federal court in Nova Scotia, but I am talking about the Supreme Court of Canada. As for the federal courts, the law already requires each province to have bilingual judges. There can be up to three judges sitting on a federal court. There are more than one, two or three judges in each province. According to the law, all citizens can have their cases heard in their own language.
At the Supreme Court, it is the opposite. Currently, there are nine justices and they might have to rule upon a section of the Constitution, for example. If such a case is brought before the Supreme Court, it is not heard and understood by all nine justices because some of them are not bilingual.
The Commissioner of Official Languages himself said that they cannot be competent if they do not know the law that applies in a case. The laws are drafted in French and in English; they are not translated.
I would simply like to ask the government to tell the Senate to study the bill—