Family law

Although he recognizes that the efforts to implement the Access to Justice in French recommendations and the holistic pilot project described above will unquestionably have positive effects on the entire justice system, the Commissioner will remain particularly keen to see substantial improvements in French-language services in family law matters.

In view of the vulnerability of some of the parties, the crisis situations involved, and concrete risks to the well-being of those embroiled in such cases, reports of problems such as the lack of staff capable of assessing the content of forms completed in French and the hasty use of ad hoc interpreters are of great concern to the Commissioner, and, if necessary, he will invest specific resources to ensure that Francophone parents and children in Ontario do not pay the price for a system that is not sufficiently responsive to them.