Thread: lawyer demands that immigration case be heard in French

Francophone lawyer demands that immigration case be heard in French
February 2, 2009 - 17:15
Andy Blatchford, THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL - A francophone lawyer is demanding that the federal government switch the language of proceedings for his client's immigration hearing to French from English.
Montreal attorney Stephane Handfield said Monday he will be better able to defend his client's interests if he's permitted to plead the case in his mother tongue. But the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has denied the defence team's request.

"It's his right, it's his choice," Handfield told a news conference.
"We have been refused this right."
The defendant, a native of Cuba who arrived in Canada from the United States, initially asked for an English hearing.
But his French-speaking lawyer said his client now wants the immigration board to hear his case in Quebec's official language, making the counsel's job easier.
Handfield said the man speaks Spanish, some English and a dash of French.
Regardless, he said the man needs a Spanish interpreter to ensure he absorbs the nuances of the case, which begins Feb. 10.
"It's unacceptable that in 2009 a lawyer cannot plead in his mother tongue," Handfield said.
An immigration board spokesman said Monday that a French-English-Spanish translator will be present for the hearing.
All parties involved in the case will be free to address the tribunal in any of the three languages, Stephane Malepart said.
He cited a Federal Court decision from November that ruled hearings should be conducted in the defendant's official language of choice - English or French.
"The judge clearly states that it's the needs of the party - not the lawyer - that should prevail," Malepart said.
Handfield's case has caught the attention of two prominent French-language rights groups and a Bloc Quebecois MP.
An official complaint was filed on the client's behalf Friday with the Official Languages Commissioner.
Bloc MP Thierry St-Cyr said he raised the issue with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in the House of Commons and is awaiting a response.
"It's very clear that for a client, his main interest is that his lawyer may defend him in the language he is most at ease in, and in the case of Mr. Handfield, that's French," said St-Cyr, the Bloc's immigration critic.
"It's a perpetual battle that we must undertake to have the right to continue to live and work in French."
Mario Beaulieu, president of the sovereigntist Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montreal, called the board's stance a "flagrant infraction" of the Official Languages Act.
"In Quebec, it's very important that French is the common language - the official language - especially when it comes to the immigration commission," said the bilingual Beaulieu, who refused to field English questions at Monday's news conference.
Photo caption:Lawyer Stephane Handfield, left, and Bloc Quebecois MP Thierry St-Cyr speak to reporters at a press conference in Montreal Monday, Feb., 2, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
"If we want to succeed at including new arrivals it must be apparent that French is the official language.
"We see that in federal institutions


http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=n020293A

I happened to stumble across a debate in the Canadian parliment where everyone wore the headphones taking advantage of translations from French to English, and English to French as members spoke. I have had to laugh, for example, if that needed to happen in our Congress.