Mr. Speaker, I cannot understand how the last time, two years ago, the government managed to only find two judges and neither of them were bilingual. In the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, there is only one bilingual judge.
The client has a right to be heard by a person who speaks his or her language. An anglophone before the courts has the right to be heard by a judge who understands English and can speak the language. The same holds true for a francophone; the law is clear about that. According to Canadian law, there are two official languages and they are equal. It is not simply a service that can be translated.
The parliamentary secretary said that the government is ready to listen to members of the francophone community. Then they should be part of the selection committee in order to put forward names, to help the government appoint bilingual people to the court. If not, I do not feel that the government will truly be able to represent both languages in Nova Scotia.