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Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund: report on Funded Projects (2004-2005 Fiscal Year)
INTRODUCTION
This report is prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Results-Based Management and Accountability Framework and the Risk-Based Audit Framework of the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund (Support Fund). It provides a brief overview of the projects1 funded under the Support Fund and activities initiated under the language rights component. It presents the program’s background, a description of the Support Fund, activities surrounding the Support Fund and the language rights component, and a list of approved projects.
This report also identifies trends and weaknesses, which will allow managers to adopt the appropriate measures for the implementation of a variety of innovative projects which meet the Department’s needs.
The report is divided into seven sections:
- Background
- Description of the Support Fund
- Activities initiated in 2004-2005
- Mitigation of risks
- Other items
- Statistics on the Support Fund
- Projects approved by the Department in 2004-2005
BACKGROUND
It has been known for a long time that official language minority communities do not have access to legal and judicial services of equal quality as those offered to the majority. Despite constitutional, quasi-constitutional and legislative provisions, recent cases as well as studies and consultations carried out by the Department show the existence of major loopholes that impede fair access.
A series of constitutional, quasi-constitutional and legislative provisions regulate the use of English and French in Canadian courts. At the federal level, this legal framework is circumscribed in section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, subsection 19(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part III of the Official Languages Act of 1988 and sections 530 and 530.1 of the Criminal Code in force throughout Canada since January 1, 1990. In addition to these provisions, various provincial laws also deal with the use of English and French in provincial courts.
Recent cases have confirmed the difficulties that exist in access to justice in both official languages. Beaulac, Devinat and the Contraventions Act are three recent cases in which governments were found to fall short with regard to language rights and the administration of justice in both official languages. The principles of the Beaulac case have had a significant impact on the government’s operations.
In 2002, the Department of Justice released a study entitled Environmental Scan: Access to Justice in Both Official Languages ( Environmental Scan ) which presents a snapshot by province and territory of access to the Canadian justice system in both official languages. The study shows that official language minority communities do not have access to legal and judicial services of equal quality as those offered to the majority. It points out, for example, that the absence of bilingual judicial personnel and the costs and delays associated with trials and proceedings in the minority official language prevent Canadians and minority communities from having equal access to the justice system.
The government’s action plan for official languages entitled
: “The Next Act: New
Momentum for Canada’s Linguistic Duality”
(Action Plan) was
released by the Prime Minister on March 12, 2003. The Action
Plan contains various initiatives to promote Canada’s linguistic
duality, including the Department of Justice’s initiative to
improve access to justice in both official languages. The Department’s
commitments outlined in the Action Plan include a component
on legal obligations (implementation of the Contraventions Act and
the Legislative Instruments Re-enactment Act) and a component
on improving access to justice in both official languages.
In addition, the Commissioner of Official Languages and French-speaking lawyers associations demand that judicial services be offered in French in several areas. It should be noted that official language minority communities have identified access to justice as the third priority after health and education.
Since the administration of justice is an area of shared jurisdiction, the collaboration of the provinces and the territories is essential. A federal/provincial/territorial working group created in 2002 is examining possible solutions to improve the situation.
The Support Fund was established in June 2003 to ensure that the Department fulfills its commitments outlined in the ActionPlan, which will help improve access to justice in both official languages.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN BOTH OFFICIAL LANGUAGES SUPPORT FUND
The Support Fund provides financial assistance to provinces and territories, universities, bar associations, French-speaking lawyers outside Quebec and English-speaking lawyers in Quebec, to allow them to initiate projects and activities for improving access to justice in both official languages. The Support Fund also includes a language rights component which provides training and develops working tools for the Department’s legal advisors. The overall goal of the Support Fund is to help make the justice system relevant and accessible and capable of meeting the needs of Canadians, in particular by ensuring better access to justice in both official languages. Its main objectives are as follows :
- Increase the capacity of the Department’s partners to develop innovative solutions to emerging issues related to access to justice in both official languages;
- Raise awareness among the legal community and official language minority communities and the public about exercising their rights and about issues related to access to justice in both official languages.
The objectives of the Support Fund are also closely linked to the Action Plan. In accordance with the commitments outlined in the Action Plan, the Department will contribute to improving access to justice in both official languages.
The Support Fund is made up of three components:
The “Partnership”
component, which
aims to develop ongoing partnerships with various organizations that
help the Department fulfill its mandate to promote access to justice
in both official languages through various means, including providing
public legal education and information to official language minority
communities and coordinating the dissemination of information between
federal, provincial and territorial governments and other justice stakeholders.
Through this component, core funding is provided to French-speaking
lawyers associations and their national Fédération, to ensure
that these organizations are able to perform their advocacy function
before governments and to play their educational role.
The “Development of Legal and Linguistic Tools – POLAJ”
component, which
aims to create resources for the common law in French and the civil
law in English, to standardize the common law vocabulary in French
and provide workshops and training to French-speaking lawyers practising
common law, and to develop related training material.
The “Innovative Pilot Projects and Activities”
component,
which aims to promote innovations in the justice system to ensure greater
access to justice in both official languages and to increase the participation
of non-governmental organizations through initiatives to increase their
capacity to better meet the needs of Canadians who are members of official
language minority communities.
1 The
term “project”
is used in this report to mean both
the projects and the core funding granted to certain organizations
under the terms and conditions of the Support Fund.
