Yvon Godin urges the Minister of Justice to appoint bilingual judges

OTTAWA – New Democrat MP, Yvon Godin (Acadie–Bathurst), wants the Minister of Justice to rectify the serious error made in 2008 when two unilingual anglophone judges were appointed to full-time positions on the Nova Scotia Supreme Court that were previously occupied by bilingual judges.

“With just one bilingual judge on the province’s Supreme Court,” Mr Godin said, “the language rights of Nova Scotia’s francophone and Acadian communities are not secure. This solitary bilingual judge might have to recuse himself for any number of reasons or he could be called upon to hear cases in French in the province’s Court of Appeal. The current situation considerably limits access to judicial services in French in Nova Scotia. That is why I am urging the Minister of Justice to make sure that the next two judges he appoints are bilingual.”

In 2008, the appointment of anglophones to replace two bilingual judges on the Nova Scotia Supreme Court shocked the Association des juristes d'expression française de la Nouvelle-Écosse (AJEFNE) and the province’s francophone and Acadian communities. At that time the AJEFNE, a non-profit organization whose mandate is to promote the accessibility of judicial services in French to Nova Scotia’s Acadian, francophone and francophile population, asked Canada’s Minister of Justice to consider a policy favouring more frequent appointments of bilingual judges to all the province’s superior courts.

“The AJEFNE made a number of submissions regarding the appointment of bilingual judges to the Senate Committee on Official Languages, the federal and provincial ministers of justice as well as community and legal partners. Regrettably, despite these efforts, no progress has been noted at the federal level,” said AJEFNE Director General Marie-Claude Rioux.

In April, two positions on the bench will have to be filled for the Yarmouth and Sydney regions, both of which have a significant proportion of residents who are French-speaking. “The requests of the AJEFNE and the francophone and Acadian community are straightforward and legitimate,” said Mr. Godin. “Let’s have members of Nova Scotia’s francophone and Acadian community on the recommending committee, and let’s have bilingual judges appointed to both upcoming vacancies.”