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OBJECTIVE: As the unit in charge of the Policy
on Legislative Bijuralism of the Department of Justice and responsible
for the application of that policy, to ensure, in cooperation with the
Bijuralism and Drafting Support Services Group, that this policy is implemented
by producing bilingual and bijural legislation and regulations.
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PRINCIPAL MEASURES
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OUTPUTS 2002-2003
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- Provide greater support for legislative and regulatory
drafters by providing them with the necessary resources and by expanding
and rationalizing the jurilinguistic services (unilingual jurilinguistic
revision and comparative revision) made available to them.
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- As in the previous fiscal year, two new Francophone
jurilinguists joined the team during fiscal 2002-2003.
- From the perspective of the official languages, the
actions of the jurilinguists have continued to be a key factor, in several
respects, in the process of developing legislative and regulatory documents.
- Bilingualism: the jurilinguists always ensure that
the meanings and effect of different versions of texts are the same.
- Support for the French version: through the support
they give to the drafters in terms of terminology, style and drafting
generally, in the case of each legislative and regulatory document,
the jurilinguists are a major component of the solution.
- Access to the law: even before any mention is made
of "readability" or "plain language", the jurilinguists
will have helped to simplify the documents, first on the French side
by developing formulas and simple, concise and authentically French
models that have later led to a number of innovations on the English
side. This contribution continued throughout fiscal 2002-2003.
- Different pressures: during the last fiscal year, the
jurilinguists supported the drafters in all matters relating to linguistic
issues – and they are important – and trends, including bijuralism,
because the harmonization of acts and regulations often requires adjustments
concerning terminology or phrasing.
- The apparent disparity in the numbers of Francophone
(8) and Anglophone (3) jurilinguists in the Jurilinguistic Service is
simply a result of the need, given the demographic situation in Canada
and the Public Service, for more substantial support for the French
version. This being said, the number of Anglophone jurilinguists increased
from 1 to 3 between 1998 and 2001 because the importance of providing
linguistic support even for the English version has since been realized.
This number remained unchanged in fiscal 2002-2003.
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- To co-operate closely with the teams in the Bijuralism
and Drafting Support Services Group responsible for implementing the
Program to harmonize federal legislation with the civil law of the province
of Quebec.
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- Since the various individuals responsible for providing
support services to drafters were brought together in a single group,
the jurilinguistic service has made a substantial contribution to the
development in both official languages of bijural federal legislation
that is harmonized with the private law of the provinces. It is consulted
regularly by the harmonization teams on jurilinguistic problems raised
by the juxtaposition of concepts from Canada's two legal cultures. In
conjunction with the comparative law team, it examines means of ensuring
that the solutions applied to problems of harmonization are of the highest
possible quality in terms of law and language. Its participation in
the Bijural Drafting Committees of legislative and regulatory drafters
from the four audiences for federal legislation ensures that it is informed
of the results of research under way and can intervene upstream, often
even before a proposal is drafted.
- Thus, the jurilinguists are now involved much earlier
in the process of developing proposals to harmonize existing federal
legislation with the private law of the provinces and this limits discussions
and second thoughts. This close co-operation continued throughout fiscal
2002-2003.
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OBJECTIVE: As part of the review of the legislative
and regulatory processes, to develop support for the French version of
legislation and regulations.
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PRINCIPAL MEASURES
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OUTPUTS 2002-2003
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- Develop a strategic approach that includes meetings
with the departments, discussions with the Privy Council and presentations
to the Committee of Deputy Ministers Responsible for Official Languages.
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- Meetings were held with several directors of legal
services in various departments in order to inform them about the importance
of supporting the versions of laws and regulations in both languages.
On the basis of the Cabinet Directive on Legislative Activity, the Legislative
Services Branch has now adopted the practice of requiring client departments
to designate for each piece of legislation a team of project leaders
able to provide drafting instructions and to comment on successive drafts
in both official languages.
- Co-drafting is the method applied first to the laws
and is one of the greatest achievements of the Legislative Services
Branch in terms of the official languages. This method continues to
expand gradually to draft regulations and substantial progress is being
made. Canada is the only country that makes systematic use of this method
and is as a result the envy of a number of countries and organizations
facing the challenge of preparing bilingual or multilingual normative
texts.
- Co-drafting has now become firmly entrenched because
it has proved itself. In fact, it is a method that is used to draft
bills simultaneously in both official languages without making one version
subject to another.
- Once again in 2002-2003, it has proved to be a particularly
effective method of drafting complex bills such as the Public Service
Modernization Act within tight deadlines.
- Two documents designed to make people aware of the
importance of strong support for the French versions of legislation
have been published:
- the 2nd edition of A Guide to the
Making of Federal Acts and Régulations was published;
- a module of the awareness of the law program was
prepared on the subject of the federal legislative process.
- In these two documents mention is made on several occasions
of the importance of providing drafters with bilingual support.
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- Enhance the bilingual capacity of drafters.
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- The language training program put in place by the Legislative
Services Branch has been continued to enable all drafters in the Legislation
Section to attain level C in oral communication. All appointments to
the Legislation Section during the period were made in accordance with
the CBC imperative language profile.
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- As an active member of the Canadian Uniform Law
Conference, draft uniform laws in both official languages for use
by the provinces and the federal government.
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- Active and ongoing process.
- The Legislation Section drafted a bilingual version
of the Uniform Execution of Foreign Judgments Act for the Canadian
Conference on the Harmonization of Legislation.
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OBJECTIVE: Establish a bilingual professional development
program for the staff of the Legislative Services Branch and sensitize
officials involved in law-making to the importance of providing a bilingual
support to drafters.
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PRINCIPAL MEASURES
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OUTPUTS 2002-2003
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- Provide the staff of the Legislative Services Branch
with courses on various aspects of legislative drafting, in English
and in French.
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- The Legislative Services Branch has offered two series
of basic courses in French legislative drafting and three series of
basic courses in English legislative drafting.
- Several seminars on more specialized aspects of legislative
drafting (e.g. coming into force of acts, co-ordinating provisions etc.)
have been held in English and French – for the staff of the Legislative
Services Branch as well as departmental legal services staff.
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- Provide officials involved in a legislative or regulatory
project with training on how to prepare adequately for their functions
and how to meet their obligations – under the Cabinet Directive on Law-making
– to provide bilingual support to legislative drafters.
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- Training sessions on the legislative and regulatory
processes – and the role of key players – have been offered, in French
and English, to Departmental officials embarking on a legislative or
regulatory project.
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Persons responsible :
Marc Cuerrier, A/Senior General Counsel, Bijuralism and Drafting Support
Services Group
Philippe Hallée, Director, Development and Special Projects, Development
and Special Projects Section
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