Influential voices in the Canadian public sphere have been criticizing the 2023 amendments to the Official Languages Act (OLA) that require federal courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, to be able to hear cases in English and French without the assistance of an interpreter.
Some of them argue that requiring all Supreme Court judges to be bilingual is overly stringent because it excludes jurists who don’t speak both official languages. Others argue the bilingualism requirement is an unconstitutional change to the court’s composition.
As professors of law and political science, we carry out research on access to federal institutions in both official languages. In our view, these criticisms plainly distort the historical, practical and constitutional realities of bilingualism in Canada’s legal system and at the Supreme Court.
