Access to English interpreters not a given in provincial courts
Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
editor@qctonline.com
A custody dispute opposing an Oshawa, Ont. area man and a South Shore woman is shedding light on the difficulties that English-speaking litigants face navigating civil cases in Quebec courts.
Mark Abbott and his Quebec-born former fiancée, whom the QCT has not spoken with and is consequently not nam- ing, were living together in the greater Toronto area when their daughter was born in March 2017. The pregnancy was planned, but the implosion of their relationship a few months later was not. In December of that year, Abbott said, his then-fiancée left for Quebec with the baby. Shortly afterward, she emailed him to end the relationship. Ever since, the couple has been in and out of court, mostly in Ontario. In July 2019, an Ontario judge granted custody of the then-two-year-old to her mother and allowed them to move to Quebec permanently. Abbott was told he could see his daughter on weekends in Montreal or in Saint-Charles-de-Bellechasse, where the child’s mother lived; he made the nine-and-a-half-hour round trip to and from Montreal at every opportunity. Then came COVID lockdowns and rounds of appeals in Ontario and Quebec courts. Abbott said he has seen his daughter in person 12 times in the past five years. He works full time and drives a 28-year-old car, and his parents sold their Toronto home to help pay his court costs.
On April 9, Abbott will go before a Quebec family court judge in Montmagny. “The goal is to decide if I get full custody of [my daughter] and I can take her to Ontario to live with me,” he said.
There’s one problem – Abbott is worried he won’t be able to fully understand the arguments made against him. Although his lawyer and the judge and court clerk assigned to his case are bilingual and he will be able to testify in English, his ex-fiancée has chosen to testify in French.
Abbott, who last took a French course in Grade 10, said he’s worried about having a barrier to communication in court. “She may say something my lawyer might not catch; if I know what is said, I can tell my lawyer, ‘No, that’s not accurate’ or ‘This is what happened here.’”
If a person is facing criminal charges in Canada, they have the right to a trial in the official language of their choice anywhere in the country, with interpreters paid for by the federal government. However, contrary to popular belief, the same is not true in provincial civil courts. According to infor- mation documents prepared by Éducaloi and the Quebec Community Groups Network (QCGN), litigants in civil cases are expected to pay for certified interpreters out of pocket, with the losing party usually reimbursing the costs. In some cases, a family member or friend may be allowed to trans- late for a litigant, but this is at the judge’s discretion. Abbott has been told he would need two interpreters and $3,000 for two days of proceedings. Deeply in debt after years of legal proceedings, Abbott said, “That’s just not something I can do right now. There’s no money to do it.”
He said he believes requiring civil court litigants to pay out of pocket for interpreter services is just another barrier that prevents people without financial resources from fully accessing the justice system. “These smaller [civil] cases have big ramifications,” he said. “This is my life and my daughter’s life. If my daughter remains in Quebec, there’s not much I can do. I’ll have to find a way to live with it and move on.”
If you are willing to provide interpretation services on a volunteer basis from April 9-11 in Montmagny, please get in touch with Mark Abbott directly (markabbott@mail.com) or through Voice of English-speaking Québec (maria.hoyt@veq.ca).