HillNote
In May 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a new trial in French for an accused who had not been informed of his right to be tried in the official language of his choice. The accused had been convicted of sexual assault following a trial that was conducted in English. This conclusion may be surprising given that the accused is a bilingual francophone who only asserted his language rights for the first time on appeal of his guilty verdict. In its decision, the Supreme Court clarified the role of the trial judge as the protector of the language rights of each accused.