Intro

-I am fed up with the way the Ministry has been treating interpreters. What kind of Ministry rewards interpreters with 20+ years of service, without incident ,with removal from the registry and with no offer of up-grading of skills?
Should a surgeon be sued for malpractice, the Medical authorities would not ask all surgeons to re-establish their credentials. We should have been grand-fathered in as Paralegals have been, and interpreters' perfomances could have been reviewed on a per-complaint basis. This test was a knee-jerk reaction by MAG following a huge lawsuit at the Brampton courthouse which was brought about after a shoddy interpretation caused a mistrial. This test has caused more problems than it has solved: the Criminal Lawyer's Association has now asked MAG to review all cases where there was a conviction and where the interpretation was done by an interpreter who has failed the test. Because unaccredited and conditionally accredited interpreters have been deemed not competent enough to do trials, the limited numbers of accredited interpreters will result in many cases being adjourned for long periods of time and will be used by lawyers to get their clients off on 11b's under our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The test

A) Vancouver Community College(VCC)
There are only 3 correctors for the tests, how can they know all of the various languages? VCC grads do get to see their corrected copies and review their sight translations, consecutive and simultaneous performances with a corrector. I called the Department Head, Karen Reinhold, at the College and she told me that students can appeal their results. When asked for the grounds for appeal, she told me that disagreeing with the marks is grounds enough. The only allowable grounds for our appealing our marks is that there may have been an administrative issue. Another very important point is that the course at VCC is 8-10 months long and include much classroom time and a full curriculum(which can be viewed online) whereas we were sent a boooklet a few weeks ahead of the test. This test had been in the works for a few years and this time could have been used to provide us with the adequate teachings for this test. VCC graduates also receive a certificate after passing the test.

B) The results
At the onset, in the study materials supplied by MAG, there was no mention of the "conditionally accredited" status. It stated that one needed to achieve 70%+ in all three sections in order to remain on the registry. It is my opinion that this new status was created after the fact when MAG realized that not enough interpreters had achieved a passing grade. This is CYA, cover your a@@ from the MAG. They made a mess and they are changing the rules as they go. They do not have enough fully accredited interpreters to go around so to suit their purposes, they created a new sub-category. How long had the results been known by MAG? They conveyed the results 10 months after the writing of the test. How long does it take for VCC students to receive the results of their tests? How long did MAG keep the results under wraps while they figured out what to do thereby "jeopardizing" the courts' intergrity and allowing "below par" interpretation to continue? It will be interesting to note the delay for the results of the second round of testing... I have been asked many times to do trials even though I am only "conditionally" accredited. So which is it? Am I good enough or am I not? This just doesn't any sense.
As with all of this whole process of testing, it seems not much thought was given to the effect the results might have in the long term. No contingency plan had been put in place. In the cover letter of the results materials sent, they mention that experts in the field had been consulted prior to this whole process. Who are these experts? It adds insult to injury when MAG requires of us really high standards and then in the correspondence sent to us to inform us of our results, one can count 11 punctuation errors, 5 typos and 1 sentence structure error.

What can we do?

-We can request that MAG provide all interpreters who failed to reach the 70%+ mark be paid a 2-week, accelerated, intensive training session, the equivalent to a condensed version of the course offered at VCC(which is 8 months in duration), along with all of the necessary prep materials, at the end of which we could be given the opportunity to write the test. As stated, the VCC program is months long whereas we were given the test materials
mere weeks prior to testing.(I have a letter to Ms. Chow and Ms. Bristo requesting materials for study and emails to Ms. Chow requesting specific lexicons for test preparation)
-We need to demand from MAG: tools, up-to-date materials, regularly scheduled seminars, paid preparation time, lexicons and information on matter prior to court date. I have emails to Mr. Bernier at Superior Court downtown where I request information on a Class Proceeding I was scheduled to interpret. Mr. Bernier requested information from the parties on my behalf and was flat-out told that none would be forthcoming...
-For the long-term: set up a tier system whereby interpreters are gauged by skill level and areas where they have the most experience. Interpreters who take-on difficult trial matters should get paid a higher salary than those who merely set-dates or take on matters to be spoken to etc.
-We need to write Alison Hedden at Alison.Hedden@ontario.ca and request our marks be disclosed to us. I know of interpreters who did manage to obtain their marks from her but then, it was said at the meeting that there had been a change in policy and tjhat she would no longer supply the marks. This is another manifestation of the fact that the MAG is making things up as it goes.
-Appeal the decision. There was no slang on this test therefore no way for them to measure the extent of the skill of the interpreter in their particular language or in English for that matter. The section in the study materials supplied by MAG on weapons-related terminology is so "hermetique" that I highly doubt that any lawyer or the best among us interpreters could find the equivalent terminology in the target language(unless one had been involved in a lengthy proceeding on such issues). I would request to see the terminology(or lexicons) used to correct this section of the study materials...
-It was unequivocally stated that the second round of testing was adjusted and had a slower speed for the simultaneous portion of the test (160wpm from 180wpm). That fact, if verifiable, is enough in itself to be grounds for a successful appeal(and another sign that MAG is making things up as they go).
-We need to hold rotating strikes at different locations, different times, where word of such is spread via blog to all interpreters and where media is called. Our position needs to be clearly enunciated with a prepared statement and where a representative is named to speak to the press. We need to have a plan for the long-term, as one day of striking may not be enough for us to be heard. We need contigency plans. We need to send a copy of the statement of our position to MAG, the Bar Association, the Press etc...
-We need to let people know that the reason for the re-testing was ONE bad interpretation, that the test was unfair, flawed and that this test had been available through the VCC since 1979 and therefore, it should be the MAG on the hotseat for not putting in place adequate training and not interpreters, who do their best with what they are given.
-The public needs to understand that the way MAG reacted to the Brampton lawsuit has caused more problems than it has solved. That they have used interpreters as scapegoats for their own ineptitude in providing us with the basics to do our work in the most professional manner. That this testing will result in more lawsuits and more criminals getting off the hook because lawyers will be invoking 11b of the Charter.
-Even though coordinators will schedule conditionally accredited interpreters to do trials because of the shortage of fully accredited interpreters, we need to refuse to do them, on principle. Trials are not on the list of what conditionals are supposedly good enough to do, therefore if you are not good enough, you don't, out of necessity ,become better because the courts are short-staffed.
-Perhaps we need to look at paying monthly contributions in order to have someone who is paid for to look after our interests, some of these funds could even be used to obtain legal advice. Another option would be to join a bigger organization, a professional organization or find out how we can somehow unionise. We obtain information on the steps necessary to achieve such.
-Individual courthouses each have their own budget allocations for interpreters. If the budget for interpreters was to be more of a global one, it may be more cost-effective for the gov't to have more of us on contract because then courthouses could "share" a contracted interpreter.
-We need to demand to be included in all decisions which will have an effect on us.
-we need to hold MAG accountable for not providing us with the materials, the training, the upgrading, the periodical gauging of our skills, for not allowing interpreters preparation time and giving us the information on the cases we will be working on.
-Noone else's skill level qualifications and performance record,as courtroom players,is being questioned publicly on the stand. How about asking lawyers to tell the court how many cases they have won, lost, how long they have been practising, what marks they achieved at the Bar Exam etc... How about we ask Clerks and Registrars similar questions? How about asking judges how many of their decisions have been appealed?



Other Issues

-Our invoices need to be processed in a timely fashion where we can expect payment within 2 weeks of work performed. Whenever office staff go on holidays, our invoices sit on their desks and wait for staff to return to be processed. Some courthouses are very effective when it comes to invoice processing while others are less than. Procedures for processing need to be established and streamlined across the board for all courthouses. Staff can expect to be paid in a timely fashion, why shouldn't we?
-Cancellation fees: we should not accept to schedule lengthy trials weeks ahead of time as they usually are settled within a few days and we only then get measly cancellation fees and may have refused countless assignments for the same time slots in the meantime. Should we get scheduled for a 2-week trial, then we should get guarantees for those days.
-Tools of the trade: we need up-to-date lexicons, seminars with practice exercises on specific subjects(bail, family court etc..), preparation time and information for matters which will be labour intensive.
-We need to educate the court as to our role.

Conclusion

-We need to liaise with MAG, the Bar Association and Union experts.
-We need to communicate with unionised court interpreters from other provinces to find out how they formed a union. We need to find out what percentage of the interpreters in other provinces are staff or contract employees? What are their wages? Training schedules? What materials are provided?
-We need to stick together, communicate as a group and not forget we are all on the same team. Solidarity.
-We need to be proud and stand up for ourselves. Let this be a wake-up call. Let's organize and be less vulnerable. We have a never before available way to communicate amongst ourselves: Morteza's blog.
-We need to write Alison Hedden and ask for our results and appeal our results as some sort of Class Appeal.
-The judicial system needs to realize that we, as interpreters, have too big of a responsibility if our mistakes can cause mistrials and multi-million lawsuits although we are expected to show up without any tools or regular upgrading of our skill set. Judges' errors in law are cause for appeal. Noone gets tested, their livelihood hanging in the balance. We get paid a pittance and are expected to be encyclopaedic in our knowledge. So much responsibility, so little respect, so little pay.

N.B. these notes were prepared in haste so please pardon my mistakes....