Official Languages committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, members of Parliament, thank you very much for receiving the Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law Inc., FAJEF. The FAJEF brings together seven associations of French-speaking lawyers whose mandate is to pro

Official Languages committee  The amount needed for each province depends on the people who receive the services. Generally speaking, the amount required in each province is what would ensure a presence for each of the AJEFs and the FAJEF. Having a player, someone whose job is to be in the community and to fo

Official Languages committee  Ontario is a success story and there are agreements with the provincial government. AGEFO has extensive ties with the federal network and it has a direct working relationship with all the departments involved in justice, be it the attorney general, the solicitor general or Public

Official Languages committee  It's a matter of linguistic authority. Unfortunately, some provinces don't have the same rights of access to justice in French as those in Ontario. However, people can certainly have access to justice services in French everywhere when it comes to criminal law. So we have to prov

Official Languages committee  The first plan that allowed this was what we called the Dion plan. It offered the possibility of basic funding, as it was called at the time—the terms have been changed a bit since then. Such permanent funding revived the FAJEF and the federal network of all the associations beca

Official Languages committee  Thank you. That is an excellent question. Thirty years ago, we wanted to train lawyers. So we created programs in the faculties. The programs at the University of Ottawa and the Université de Moncton are strong and help to train many lawyers. Other law faculties also have French

Official Languages committee  The current policy is excellent, but the network of francophone lawyers has long said that there should be legislation. I worked with Mr. Justice Rowe at Gowling WLG before he left for Newfoundland and Labrador. He is functionally bilingual. That is the kind of appointment that

Official Languages committee  The FAJEF is working very closely with the Department of Justice on all these projects. This problem was identified a long time ago. Most lawyers have argued—and I am one of them—that the level of technical language used by some witnesses in court to explain concepts was difficul

Official Languages committee  Several francophone judges have been appointed. We know that these people are capable of hearing cases in French. This is not a problem for some people, and the community realizes this. However, it is a little difficult for the francophone community to test this once the person

Official Languages committee  There are some very interesting and very important cases in the French community. It's important not to think that all cases in French are less important. That said, the fact that the same judge is always the person designated for bilingual trials greatly decreases flexibility.

Official Languages committee  These issues have been raised in the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages. So the problem has been clarified at the federal level. In Ontario, a report specifically on the situation in Ontario was prepared, notably by Justice Rouleau, who is a leader in access to just

Official Languages committee  We were talking earlier about appointments to the Supreme Court. We must amend the Supreme Court Act to ensure the policy will be applied on a permanent basis.

Official Languages committee  Legislation is the best way to ensure that the Supreme Court and the other superior courts have enough bilingual judges.

Official Languages committee  The best study is the one submitted a few years ago by the Commissioner of Official Languages. It concerns access to justice. I don't have the numbers on hand and I haven't heard about any studies as comprehensive as the Commissioner's study. We see some fluctuations as a result

Official Languages committee  Yes.