Official Languages committee  I never mentioned tolerance; I said it was an accommodation. And it is one, simply because the Quebec act provides that there is only one official language and that it's the common language of the Quebec community or people. The premier of Quebec repeated that throughout the las

Official Languages committee  The UN decision has nothing to do with that.

Official Languages committee  I think there are enough qualified individuals in all the provinces and regions of Canada to be able to appoint nine judges to the Supreme Court.

Official Languages committee  The federal act doesn't concern British Columbia's institutions; it concerns the federal institutions in British Columbia. Personally, I don't think many additional obligations have been created; the bill simply clarifies language rights in order to improve the act's implementat

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. The Supreme Court was created by federal statute long after Canada was founded, and that statute is the one that establishes the criteria. The Constitution merely provides that there is a Supreme Court. That's obviously from the Constitution Act, 1982, not that of 18

Official Languages committee  A distinction has to be drawn between what is spent at the provincial level and at the federal level. The federal government funds services in French solely in the federal courts, that is the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Supreme Cour

Official Languages committee  Well, there is already an obligation in the lower federal courts because amendments in 1988 provided that the litigants had the right to be heard directly by the judges who are sitting there. They can address the court in their language, but they must be heard directly and not th

Official Languages committee  I think the creation of a tribunal was already discussed and rejected many years ago. It was suggested at this time that we might look at that possibility again, but in fact a lot of people are afraid that this would add to the cost of litigation and also create more delays. Wha

Official Languages committee  We do that by amending the act and creating those powers. Then there is always the possibility of judicial review by the Federal Court.

Official Languages committee  I don't think it would be in the act, except for defining in a better way the supervisory role of different institutions like the Treasury Board. In the present situation, it's Canadian Heritage that is supposed to make sure that all the departments have a bilingualism plan and

Official Languages committee  The real problem is that the Department of Justice and Canadian Heritage, in particular, don't interpret the act in the same way and don't have the same objective either. The Department of Justice has gone to court twice to argue an extremely restrictive interpretation of part V

Official Languages committee  You won't really find provisions like that in the act.

Official Languages committee  It's more in the regulations.

Official Languages committee  I think there is no real need to refer to any provincial legislation when we're talking about the objectives of a federal act. In this case it's illogical, because the act in Quebec favours one single common language for Quebeckers and accommodates the rights of anglophones, most

Official Languages committee  Yes, absolutely.