CBC News
Defence lawyers who work in Ontario's justice system are calling for a provincial inquiry into the accreditation of court interpreters.
Last week it was learned that during initial testing about 40 per cent of the province's court interpreters had failed a new government proficiency test.
About 225 of Ontario's 600 court interpreters have been tested so far.
The Ministry of the Attorney General says it is recruiting new interpreters to help fill holes.
Paul Burstein. president of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, says an inquiry should be held to identify possible miscarriages of justice.
"Obviously this current round of tests shows that what's been happening for the past five years has been far less than adequate — and that raises a real concern about how many people who have had criminal trials which have depended on accurate court interpretation, have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice," said Burstein.
In 2005 a judge criticized the province's translation operation. That prompted the ministry to come up with the new proficiency test.
Burstein said Monday the province should make every effort to track down any possible miscarriages of justice caused by inadequate translation.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
The disturbing fact is that we have an
underbelly of the judiciary who prey on the self-represented litigants and in
particular, take advantage or more to the appoint, flagrantly abuse litigants
who have English as a second language.
Its very easy to slip in a big word that a newcomer to Canada does not
understand that can cause utter destruction to one party.
Two Ottawa Judges have done this recently, Justice Denis Power and madam Justice
Aitken whose infamous reputation for hatred of men, rivals that of Feldman of
the Court of Appeal for Ontario but who at least, gives immigrants more respect,
as long as they are not male.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com