The Supreme Court has suspended a bid for a judge’s post that requires only fluency in French. This is another setback for the Attorney General in his showdown with the Chief Justice of the Quebec Court.
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Judge Christian Immer ordered on Monday that the selection process for a new judge for the juvenile section in Longueuil be suspended until the trial next autumn.
This is the same judge who declared “illegal” the interventions of Attorney General Simon Jolin-Barrette to prevent the almost systematic requirement for bilingualism in the appointment of new judges.
Quebec believes that proficiency in English should only be mandated where its necessity is demonstrated. On the other hand, the Chief Justice of the Quebec Court, Lucie Rondeau, argues that the criteria for appointing a judge relate to the independence of the judiciary.
After this first failure before the Supreme Court, the Legault government had amended the law as part of its Bill 101 reform to specify that proficiency in a language other than French could only be required with the consent of the Minister of Justice.
The Conseil de la Magistrature then requested a judicial review to invalidate this change. The suspension announced today is a temporary victory for Justice Rondeau.
Quebec will appeal
In Quebec, Minister Jolin-Barrette’s reaction was swift: “I repeat, it is inconceivable that the mere fact of not knowing a language other than the official language could automatically constitute a barrier to access to the Quebec judge. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that this is not the case and we have done so with Law 96,” he said in a written statement.
“We completely disagree with today’s verdict and intend to appeal Judge Immer’s decision,” added the Attorney General.
Bilingualism desired?
In its arguments in court, Quebec argued that only 4% of users in the Longueuil district speak English. To make this determination, the department not only used legal aid applications, but also heard a sample of cases in six counties that required bilingualism.
According to Quebec, 100% of the judges in Montérégie’s juvenile division are currently bilingual.
Nationally, Quebec has 87.9% bilingual judges, says Minister Jolin-Barrette’s office.
This is much more than elsewhere in the country, according to this table provided by Quebec, which is based on data from Statistics Canada.
Percentage of bilingual judges by province:
- 61.1% in New Brunswick (two official languages)
- 40% on Prince Edward Island
- 37.3% in Ontario
- 33.3% in Newfoundland and Labrador
- 30% in Nova Scotia
- 29.4% in Alberta
- 22.3% in Manitoba
- 13.9% in British Columbia
- 8% in Saskatchewan