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Exactly three years after they were arrested at Toronto’s Pearson airport, a pair of accused Jamaican drug smugglers remain unable to stand trial because of a critical shortage of Jamaican Patois interpreters.

With more than 170,000 Jamaican-Canadians in the Toronto area, the region is a Canadian hotspot of linguists able to negotiate their way through the occasional “irie” and “ya nuh see?”

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Even Toronto Mayor Rob Ford appears to have an adept grasp of the Caribbean dialect, as per a secretly taped rant released in January.

Nevertheless, just last week a long-delayed trial of the two accused smugglers ended in a mistrial because the interpreter found by the court in Brampton, Ont., was deemed to be incompetent.

“I am shocked that, in a jurisdiction like Brampton, with the diverse population and the criminal caseload including narcotics matters involving Pearson International Airport, the availability of accredited Jamaican Patois interpreters is so slim,” wrote Ontario Superior Court Justice Clayton Conlan in the April 24 decision to end the trial.