Justice committee  The problem obviously stems from the fact that, practically speaking, the accused have to base their choice on whether to have their trial in English or in French on the capacity of the legal system before which they are to appear. If they choose to have their trial in French, th

Justice committee  Let us say that, in a given region, there are no francophone judges available. What can you do in that case? Some people will decide to proceed in English. In my criminal law practice, I had an accused ask me whether the judge would treat him more harshly if he asked for his tri

Justice committee  Obviously, there is work to be done. In some regions of Canada, there are perhaps fewer judges appointed to superior courts who are bilingual or who have bilingual capacity. The Centre canadien de français juridique intends to better train provincial court judges. That is one o

Justice committee  I think it would be a good idea to make such an amendment to the law. At the same time, it is important to provide good training for judges, because if they are not made aware that they must inform the accused of their rights, the law will not be properly enforced.

Justice committee  I believe that some provinces, including Nova Scotia, meet regularly with the Minister of Justice or one of the minister's representatives. I don't know what the other provinces do, but perhaps Rénald could provide you with more information about that.

Justice committee  Obviously, I do not have the same experience in Saskatchewan, but according to some justice of the peace colleagues, Alberta sometimes uses video conferences, like the one we are doing now. That is perhaps a way of dealing with the shortage of staff, francophone or French-speakin

Justice committee  Sometimes, judges refuse to inform accused persons of their right. I reviewed letters sent to the committee by the provinces and I noticed that Alberta's justice minister seemed unaware of article 530(3) of the Criminal Code, which asks the judge to make an active offer. That's p

Justice committee  Mr. Rémillard, do you want to comment on that?

Justice committee  Mr. Rémillard can probably answer that.

Justice committee  I do not know.

Justice committee  Mr. Rémillard just mentioned some examples from British Columbia and Manitoba. I think that in Alberta, they tried to use the list of people whose children attend francophone schools. In fact, thousands of students are registered in francophone schools. We take for granted that t

Justice committee  In practice, the problem is more or less the same, be it for anglophones or francophones. Recently in Edmonton, a judge asked sheriffs to go out into the street to find anglophone jury members. It can be a problem regardless of the language of the proceedings.

Justice committee  I do not have information on that. Perhaps Mr. Rémillard can give you some.

Justice committee  I can answer that question. We can say that it is, in fact, a huge problem. I do not know if Mr. Rémillard already mentioned this, but in 2010, the Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law inc. created the Centre canadien de français juridiqu

Justice committee  Applying that would certainly pose some practical problems. In criminal law, if we want both official languages to one day have real equal status, we will have to continue working toward that goal on a practical level. I am aware that there are many obstacles. For example, what