Trial Courts in Ottawa and Florida To Spend More On Interpreting Services

"Trial courts in Ottawa in Canada and the state of Florida in the US are taking the initiative to strengthen people’s access to language and interpreting services.

In Canada’s capital city, a pilot project launched in 2015 to explore ways to increase public access to French language services in courthouses will be made permanent.

This was announced on October 11, 2017 by Canada’s Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, Minister of Francophone Affairs Marie-France Lalonde, and French Language Commissioner Francois Boileau in Ottawa.

A detailed study on the Seamless Access to Justice in French Pilot Project, which ran for 18 months at the Ottawa courthouse, shows that making court information available in French to French-speaking individuals and strengthening their French language rights in criminal proceedings have improved access to justice even with the absence of a separate project funding..."

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