Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  Exactly. I believe that service must be available. The worst-case scenario we can think of is a non-bilingual judge not wearing an earpiece for fear that someone might notice, because wearing the earpiece would mean that he is not bilingual and does not have the required skills.

Official Languages committee  Quite frankly, I don't think I can answer that question. You know your job, and all its political ramifications.

Official Languages committee  I was executive legal officer.

Official Languages committee  There is no official translation structure.

Official Languages committee  Frankly, in all honesty, I do not know. I did not work in the judges' internal offices. I do not know how they access the information.

Official Languages committee  I do not know. Once again, when they sit around that table, it is them alone. No one else is in the room. So I do not know. I will say that, in recent years, there has certainly been a change there. I have seen other situations when judges are having conversations among themselves and they switch between English and French because a lot of judges speak French now.

Official Languages committee  I think that we share the same view, but in terms of skill in both languages, I am suggesting a range. It’s not binary; it is not just yes or no. For example, I am trying to learn Italian these days and it is not easy. I am not at all bilingual with Italian but I am with English.

Official Languages committee  I think that is important. Measuring bilingualism is done by tests. Language experts can measure it through tests, but I am not sure that an appointment as important as justice of the Supreme Court should be decided by an individual’s degree of bilingualism. The possibility of rising to the Supreme Court being determined by failing a test that is now given to public servants, to senior federal public servants, is a little alarming.

Official Languages committee  Exactly. The important thing for me—and this is what we mean by “functional bilingualism”—is that you have sufficient command of both languages to do the job. It is always measured functionally, that is, in the context of the task to be done. In my opinion, a high degree of skill in both languages is required.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. I am very pleased and very honoured by your invitation to speak to you today on the issue of the bilingualism of Supreme Court of Canada justices, more specifically. I know that you have spent considerable time on this question recently.