STATUS REPORT 2001-2002

• As a result of Treasury Board's decision to raise the profile of official languages in order to ensure active compliance with the Official Languages Act, particularly with respect to the development of official language minority communities, the Department has appointed a "Champion" of Official Languages.

• Make official languages more visible, so as to ensure active compliance with the Official languages Act.

• We put in place a network on bilingualism made up of employees from all areas of the Department who volunteered to discuss actions to be taken in order to ensure active compliance with the OLA.

• The Champion initiated meetings with organizations that are deeply involved in the subject of access to justice in both official languages (Association de juristes d'expression française, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada) and with the Commissioner of Official Languages. The Champion is a member of the Steering Committee on the Site for Language Management in Canada. The Champion gave a presentation on the official languages in the administration of justice to the meeting of F/P/T deputy ministers of justice.

• Maximize departmental activities that have an impact on the development of official language minority communities.

• A position of Senior Policy Analyst was created with respect to Part VII of the OLA. We are putting mechanisms in place to make our programs better known to the community organizations.

Person responsible:

Mario Dion, Associate Deputy Minister of Justice