After Justin Trudeau resigned in January 2025, Governor General Mary Simon agreed to suspend Parliament while searching for his replacement.
For freelance interpreters—who provide live interpreting services at public meetings on Parliament Hill and for federal departments—the pause on Parliamentary business meant the sudden cancellation of months of work.
“We thought when [the federal Translation Bureau] had cancelled, that meant they had no work,” Cousineau said. “It’s okay if that’s the case. The problem was that wasn’t the case.”
As it turned out, the work hadn’t stopped for everyone.
Instead, according to four interpreters who filed complaints with the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman, the federal procurement watchdog, the government breached the terms of the interpreters’ contracts “in secrecy” by awarding the available work to a subset of freelancers who were charging the lowest prices.
In a series of reports published earlier this year, the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman agreed that in doing so the government had violated its contracts with the interpreters. The Ombudsman recommended that Public Services and Procurement Canada pay out damages for the lost wages.
In each case, the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman described “a strong suspicion of bad faith” on the part of government, but ultimately decided the evidence wasn’t strong enough to judge intent.
About six months later, Cousineau said she and the other complainants are still fighting for the wages they say they’re owed. They have yet to reach a deal.
“The problem is that only the department knows how much money the interpreters would have received had the department followed the rules—and it isn’t willing to share that information,” Cousineau said. “The process has been long and painful.”
Ottawa Citizen (8/31/26) By Ben Andrews