Some members of Calgary’s accredited court interpreter community are calling on the justice minister to step in to ensure cases are not compromised by unqualified coworkers.

So far this year, there have been 160 bookings for court interpreters at the Calgary Courts Centre.

Over the past few months, cases have required a Hindi interpreter for Hari Pal, who was convicted of double murder, a Punjabi speaker for Satinderjit Mangat, who was found guilty of sexual assault, and someone fluent in Cantonese for Jin Huang, who is accused of a deadly stabbing.

In 2015, the province ordered court interpreters to be members of the Association of Translators and Interpreters of Alberta, which has a national governing body, or the Alberta Court Interpreters Association, which does not.

Sumita Anand has worked as an interpreter for 15 years and hasn't renewed her membership with ACIA because she is concerned about how it operates and approves its members.

“Primarily it’s the quality of the interpreters that are being provided to the court system, they are definitely not competent enough to be interpreters,” said Anand.

She wants the justice minister to demand ACIA join a national organization.

“They monitor the way the interpreter gets the certification, they have full control over qualification. None of this is happening in this organization if it’s not governed,” she said.

Linguist Gary Donovan speaks 12 languages but only works in French in court and he is also worried about ACIA and its processes.

“The testing procedures are not adequate. People get through that don’t write and speak when they should, read, write, speak the language,” he said.

ACIA’s past president even asked why one interpreter, who can only speak Hindi, is working when the organization’s code of ethics requires members to speak, read and write fluently.

“We do our utmost to go through every file, every application and go through stuff.  We've went as far as to call different universities to clarify or make sure that's not a fake certificate,” said Zakie Hage, President, Alberta Court Interpreters Association.

Hage says board members are now considering joining a national body.

“Now we're tightening our guidelines, we have spoken to a few of them to see what the requirements are so we can be affiliated with somebody nationally,” he said.

Alberta Justice doesn't do its own background checks and in a statement said …  

ACIA and ATIA are responsible to ensure their members are fully qualified and have the necessary training and certification to provide interpretation services.

It's not clear how many cases have been derailed by translation mistakes, but the government says it will meet with Sumita Anand about her concerns this month.

“I think it scary because it is compromising the justice system,” said Anand.

The province says establishing a national standard would have to be a federal discussion and that Alberta continues to work with the legal community to ensure professional standards for interpreters meet their needs.

Alberta Justice says the following requirements are needed to be a member in good standing with ACIA and ATIA:

Currently, if the Crown's office receives a complaint it will be reviewed by the prosecutor on that case and then discussed with the member’s organization.

The decision to remove an interpreter can be based on the Crown’s recommendation as well as public concern and the rules vary across the country.

For more information on interpreters and preparing for court, visit the Alberta Courts website HERE.