Environmental Scan: Access to Justice in Both Official Languages
Appendix 6
INVENTORY ON THE STATUS OF ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN THE TWO OFFICIAL LANGUAGES
INTERVIEW PROTOCOL FOR PRESIDENTS of AJEF
- What are the main barriers blocking access to justice in French in your Province?
Note to interviewers: This is an open question. However, a list of themes is provided to help boost the discussion with the person being interviewed, if necessary.
The following list of barriers is taken in part from an article by Justice Bastarache: "La situation du français dans les tribunaux du Nouveau-Brunswick", 1997, Actes du colloque "Pour une common law à notre image".
- Training and awareness
- Legal training in French
- Availability of law school graduates, who can appropriately communicate in French, both orally and in writing
- Access to legal French courses
- Awareness efforts by provincial and district bars
- Awareness efforts by the Department of Justice
- Documentation
- Access to legal glossaries in French
- Access to legal documents in French (case law, rules and pleadings, legislation, legal academic texts)
- Services
- Access to services in French from counsel, prosecutors, court staff, etc.
- Access to testimony in French from experts (such as police officers, physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, trustees or others)
- Access to good simultaneous or consecutive interpretation
- Access to juries whose members can follow the case in French
- Access to legal aid in French
- Training and awareness
- Given the barriers you have identified, what solutions would be appropriate to remedy the situation? How could they be implemented - necessary resources and measures?
- Among the solutions previously identified, which ones could serve as exemplary models or practices? How and why?
- In areas of federal jurisdiction, what methods, actions or resources promote access to justice in French in your province?
- In terms of criminal law, is there a policy respecting the active offer of service in the two official languages in your province? If so, please specify the chief methods used to implement this policy.
- In your province, have reforms or initiatives been planned that may have adverse implications for the delivery of legal services in the two official languages?
- In your province, have reforms or initiatives been planned that may have positive implications for the delivery of legal services in the two official languages?
- In your province, have reforms or initiatives been introduced that have had negative effects on the delivery of legal services in the two official languages?
- In your province, have reforms or initiatives been introduced that have had positive effects on the delivery of legal services in the two official languages?
- In areas of federal jurisdiction, are francophones citizens at a disadvantage because of language in your province? Please comment.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR CO-OPERATION. IT IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED
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