involved in providing second-rate transla-
tions and interpretations.
“Canada, being such a diverse country
where 50 per cent of the Toronto popula-
tion has a second language, there has to
be an industry to support quality services
to those people and this applies to the of-
ficial languages and multilingual languag-
es,” said Lola Bendana, president of the
not-for-profit organization, Association de
l’Industrie de la Langue or Language In-
dustry Association (AILIA).
Defining quality service — that’s where
AILIA enters the picture. According to Ben-
dana, anybody can set up shop as a trans-
lation agency. Because the barrier to entry
is very limited, there are approximately
800 to 1,000 translation or interpretation
agencies in Canada. “People think that if
you speak the language, you’re able to
translate and interpret. That is absolutely
amiss. You have to have certain credentials
SEPTEMBER 2016
H
business elite canada 37
