Justice committee  We have to use sections 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code as a model. They set out the right of the parties to use one or both of the official languages, as well as the duty of the court to understand the language used by the parties and, thereafter, to provide the results, such

Justice committee  Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you very much for agreeing to hear the comments of the Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française, or FAJEF, on a different aspect of the amendment to the Divorce Act, that of protecting the right of individuals to use th

Official Languages committee  The whole issue of tools needed to practise law that come from the commercial world is a big problem for francophones in minority situations, because the commercial market is not big enough to justify the expense. The problem is partly resolved by the gradual replacement of comme

Official Languages committee  The FAJEF's view is that the bilingualism self-assessment is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough. There must be an evaluation. In the system, people declare themselves to be bilingual too often. They are certainly bilingual enough to be able to communicate in both

Official Languages committee  That is a very good question. In fact, one of the problems is that chief justices want to know exactly how many requests there are. But quantitative analysis has to consider so many factors that, statistically, the data have little validity. Actually, you can make those figures s

Official Languages committee  Working groups were formed in the wake of the 2015 report by the Commissioner of Official Languages. In that respect, it is clear that work is being done. This morning, Mr. Rémillard and I met with people from the Department of Justice so that they could update us on what is happ

Official Languages committee  There is a common factor to the difficulties we face: a lot of people are involved in the field of justice. We have chief justices on the one hand and provinces on the other. Although appointments are a federal responsibility, the administration of justice is in provincial jurisd

Official Languages committee  No. It is possible in New Brunswick.

Official Languages committee  Under part VII of the Official Languages Act as it applies to the promotion of access to justice, the federal government should take the necessary measures to ensure that citizens have access to justice in their own language in any area they need. However, in the case of divorce

Official Languages committee  Civil litigation in provinces generally falls under provincial jurisdiction. Family law and the Divorce Act fall under federal jurisdiction. Several aspects of family law do not deal with divorce, but when it occurs, it falls under federal law. The power of Parliament to legisla

Official Languages committee  Criminal law is the best example.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for welcoming us to address this issue, which is very important to the FAJEF. As mentioned before, I am the president of the Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law inc., which

Official Languages committee  Some provinces had very strong AJEFs, but they are no longer as strong because they no longer have sufficient funding to keep them going. That is another issue though. The other issue is that there are no AJEFs in some places. Newfoundland and Labrador, for instance, has never h

Official Languages committee  Many immigrants choose Quebec because they are familiar with a number of pillars of the community. Many choose other parts of Canada for other reasons, such as geography, work opportunities, and so forth. They report significant stress owing to the fact that they are not familiar

Official Languages committee  It is certainly a selling feature. I was referring earlier to the two legal systems being a draw for university students. It should also be promoted to other people.