English Canada’s six seats on the Supreme Court will be closed to unilingual anglophones if the Senate passes Bill C-232.

This bill makes fluency in French and English mandatory for all future Supreme Court justices. The Bloc Québécois joined the Liberals and the NDP to create majority support for the bill, which passed the House in March.

On a practical level the bill will create two categories of lawyers outside Quebec: a small elite cadre of bilingual anglophone lawyers and judges who will be eligible to be appointed to one of six positions on the Supreme Court; and the overwhelming majority of non-Quebec lawyers and judges who will no longer be eligible to serve on our nation’s highest court regardless of their legal talent and experience.

Competent lawyers and judges who grew up without the opportunity to acquire fluency in French will be automatically excluded. This bill will result in good linguists being chosen over good judges.

See: The Globe and Mail

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