In French, please, Your Honour
We were contacted by a person who requested a bilingual hearing at a courthouse in Northern Ontario.
ATTENTION: Over the holiday weekend, our staff will not be available on: Good Friday, April 3: ALL units | Easter Monday, April 6: Children & Youth and French Language Services Units. Complaints can be made online or via email at [email protected].
We were contacted by a person who requested a bilingual hearing at a courthouse in Northern Ontario.
We were contacted by a person who requested a bilingual hearing at a courthouse in Northern Ontario. However, at the time of the hearing, the judge present could only speak English and no other means of providing services in French were available. The self-represented person could not follow the hearing adequately or participate in it in French, so the judge decided to suspend the hearing. We raised the case with the Ministry of the Attorney General, and were told this was a scheduling error. As a result of our intervention, the Ministry reminded courthouse staff of the procedure for scheduling bilingual hearings, to ensure services are available and equivalent at all times.