News

The Quebec National Assembly voted unanimously yesterday to demand that the federal government appoint bilingual judges to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Premier Jean Charest insisted that the motion calling on Supreme Court judges to master the French language as an essential condition of their appointment wasn't just a simple request but a firm demand expressed by all members of the National Assembly.

"The current federal government wanted to talk about open federalism and distinguish itself in the way it practices federalism. Our expectations are that its decisions comply with this will and that the next judge and all judges named to the Supreme Court will have a good understanding of French," Mr. Charest said.

Official Opposition Leader Mario Dumont asked the rest of Canada to put itself in Quebec's position.

"Could you just imagine considering the candidacy of a Supreme Court of Canada judge who did not speak any English at all?" Mr. Dumont asked. "The answer is quite obvious."

In 2006, the Conservative government appointed Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein, a unilingual anglophone, to the highest court to replace another unilingual anglophone, John Major.

With the departure of Mr. Justice Michel Bastarache, the leaders of all three political parties in Quebec argued that the time had come to insist on the French-language requirement as prerequisite to all future appointments.

"The National Assembly must express in a single voice that it finds unacceptable that the knowledge of the French language is not a preliminary and essential condition to Supreme Court appointments," Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois said.