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Canada-wide Analysis of Official Language Training Needs in the Area of Justice
Technical Report: Analysis of Socio-Professional Data

4.0 Comparative analysis of the occupations

It is interesting to compare the positions of the occupations based on various criteria such as knowledge of the minority official language, knowledge of both official languages in workers from the majority and according to agegroup.

4.1 Comparisons of knowledge of the minority language

We calculated the knowledge of the minority official language, which is the total of the populationwith knowledge of both official languages and that with knowledge of only the minority language (French in Canada excluding Quebec and English in Quebec). This calculation tells us the size of the pool of people who can offer justice services in the minority official language. It is true that the information taken from the census is subjective. "Knowledge of the official languages" reflects the opinion of the people who completed the census about their own ability to "have a conversation" in the official languages. It is not an objective gauge of the actual ability to understand or use the languages.

Table 1 represents a classification of the occupations according to knowledge of the minority language. It is notable that across Canada (except Quebec) and Quebec, the occupations best equipped to respond in the minority language are judges, lawyers and notaries. In Canada, the other categories have a fairly weak ability, between 9 and 16%, whereas inQuebec this ability is quite strong with rates between 55 and 68%. In the mainly Anglophone provinces and territories, front-line employees in the courts have a very reduced ability to respond in French to people who appear before the courts. However, if the work force is analyzed instead of the percentages, we see that, for example, the number of bilingual paralegals in Canada is quite high.

Table 1: Classification of occupations according to knowledge of the minority official language, Canada (except Quebec) and Quebec, 2006

**Canada (except Quebec)**
Occupation	%	Work force
judges	29	550
lawyers and notaries	25	13 715
paralegals	12	3,595
sheriffs and bailiffs	9	165
probation and parole officers	14	680
justices of the peace and court officers	16	555
court clerks	13	355
Total		19 615

**Quebec**
Occupation	%	Work force
judges	88	630
lawyers and notaries	83	15 365
paralegals	68	3,060
sheriffs and bailiffs	63	440
probation and parole officers	59	505
justices of the peace and court officers	55	595
court clerks	55	350
Total		20 945

The same data compiled by province and territory (Table 2) shows that New Brunswick is strong in terms of knowledge of the minority official language, close to the situation found in Quebec. Ontario is slightly above the Canadian average outside Quebec.

**Table 2: Knowledge of the minority official language by socio-professional category and region, by percentage, 2006**
	B317 Justices of the peace and court officers	B543 Court clerks	E011 Judges	E012 Lawyers and notaries	E025 Probation and parole officers and related occupations	E211 Paralegals and related occupations
Canada-QC	16	13	29	25	14	12
NB	53	67	94	50	49	29
NS/PE/NL	6	13	19	19	10	8
QC	55	55	88	83	59	68
ON	18	17	31	29	17	14
MB	13	12	16	16	9	9
SK	0	0	19	13	2	0
AB	12	7	35	17	6	8
BC	16	11	22	18	12	9
YT/NT/NU	13	0	0	26	0	11

Our data indicates (tables A3 and A4 in the Appendix) that in Alberta, 75 judges and 1,280 lawyers with English as their first official language spoken claim to know French. This characteristic is also present in British Columbia with 80 judges and 1,830 lawyers and, in Ontario, with 235 judges and 8,945 lawyers.

4.2 Comparisons according to first official language spoken (FOLS)

It is interesting to separate the portion of the population from the majority with knowledge of both official languages. This indicates the depth of the challenge of second-language learning. Figures 1 and 2 below show these profiles for Quebec and Canada excluding Quebec. In both cases, the portion of the work force with knowledge of both official languages is essentially from the majority: 96% in Quebec and 79% in the rest of Canada.

Percentage of population with knowledge of both OL, with French as FOLS, by legal occupation, Quebec 2006

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Percentage of the population with knowledge of both OL, with English as FOLS, by legal profession, Canada except QC, 2006

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4.3 Comparisons by age group

The general data on age distribution indicates a fairly normal situation: all the occupations have a similar distribution, except for judges whose particularity results from the requirement to have practised law for ten years inorder to become eligible for a judicial appointment. Figure 3 shows the similarity of the curves, except for judges.

Age curve of justice occupations selected, Canada, 2006 (%)

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The comparative analysis by age group is interesting in terms of knowledge of both official languages. We can see the extent to which this knowledge is a growing phenomenon in the younger generations. Table 3 and 4 show the data for Quebec and for Canada excluding Quebec, respectively. Figures 4 and 5 show the data for all occupations.

**Table 3: Knowledge of both official languages by socio-professional category and age group, Quebec, 2006 (%)**
Socio-professional category	Total	15 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 54	55 to 64	65 and +
B317 Justices of the peace and court officers	55	38	61	69	45	53	0
B543 Court clerks	55	67	88	59	38	55	0
E011 Judges	88	0	0	0	83	93	81
E012 Lawyers and notaries	82	85	85	85	78	81	91
E025 Probation and parole officers	59	83	65	58	56	42	0
E211 Paralegals	66	71	69	65	58	70	90
G621 Sheriffs and bailiffs	64	0	80	83	56	48	80
All selected occupations	77	76	80	79	71	77	88

**Table 4: Knowledge of both official languages by socio-professional category and age group, Canada excluding Quebec, 2006 (%)**
Socio-professional category	Total	15 to 24	25 to 34	35 to 44	45 to 54	55 to 64	65 and +
B317 Justices of the peace and court officers	16	22	27	17	14	8	16
B543 Court clerks	13	13	18	13	13	7	0
E011 Judges	29	0	0	27	38	26	22
E012 Lawyers and notaries	25	29	34	26	21	19	14
E025 Probation and parole officers	14	21	18	12	13	7	50
E211 Paralegals	12	18	14	9	10	10	9
G621 Sheriffs and bailiffs	8	13	15	6	8	6	5
All selected occupations	19	19	25	19	17	16	14

In Quebec, we notice a distinct peak in the 25-44 age group where knowledge of both official languages surpasses the 45-54 age group by ten or so percentage points. Note that while the rate is high for the 55+ age group, they are fewer in number and therefore carry less weight.

In Canada, a very new trend is showing for the 25-34 age group. Members of this group are showing knowledge of both official languages at 6 to 11 percentage points higher than the previous generations.