Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to thank the members of the committee for inviting me to speak today on the important plan to amend the Official Languages Act of Canada. When you live outside the city of Ottawa and the province of Ontario, and especially wh

Official Languages committee  It's a cause I've been advocating since I was about 15 years old. So it's been 48 years.

Official Languages committee  I'd prefer an administrative tribunal over coercive powers granted to the Commissioner of Official Languages, who has a special relationship that he must maintain with the federal institutions. It would be difficult, in a way, to grant the commissioner the power to impose penalti

Official Languages committee  I did so for 10 years.

Official Languages committee  It worked very well on the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which could make an order when a department or federal institution was found guilty of violating the Canadian Human Rights Act. It could be an enforceable order requiring the institution to make a particular change or es

Official Languages committee  There's a limit. If my memory serves me, for example, the limit for punitive and non-monetary damages is $20,000 in a single case. However, the amount of damages could be quite substantial in the case of monetary losses suffered by an individual. The most important thing is not

Official Languages committee  I'll let someone else answer on the governance issue. To my mind, what's even more important is that there be the political will to ensure those rights are fully implemented. Whether it be the Privy Council, the Treasury Board, Canadian Heritage or any other organization, the go

Official Languages committee  In that case, we'd wind up in court.

Official Languages committee  I doubt the institutions that would have to administer the act would be interested in doing so if the government wasn't interested.

Official Languages committee  I look at what's happening back home in New Brunswick. As a result of the lack of interest of successive governments, the various departments and institutions aren't very interested in implementing the provincial Official Languages Act. That lack of interest and will infects all

Official Languages committee  That era's over.

Official Languages committee  You weren't alive in 1969.

Official Languages committee  It's not highly developed in language rights. To date, we've tried instead to establish the existence of a right and to apply for declaratory orders from the courts. We haven't really evolved on damages for violations of language rights. However, there are damages. You need only

Official Languages committee  You grant it the authority to order damages where the judge deems it appropriate. Damages are not an exact science, like mathematics. You and I are lawyers, and we know that. I'm also an industrial relations arbitrator. I sometimes order damages, and I can tell you it's not an ex

Official Languages committee  Absolutely.