However, isn't Canada different? It has two official languages in English and French, and all official communications are done in both languages as a legal requirement. I don't know much about the schooling system there, but I expect (if India is any example to go by), both the official languages are taught to kids there at an early age, giving them an opportunity to become bilingual in these two languages.
With all my respect for Canadians, not even 5% in the French speaking Canada are bilingual.
It is good practice to judge based on hard evidence or personal experience. I too have opinions about, say, Florida but have not been there and cannot tell you how the stuff is done there, what language they speak and at what level. Therefore, I will keep my opinion for myself, until I have a chance to go there.
Assuming that either Canadians or Belgians are bilingual just for the sake of it is very far from the reality.
I also very much disagree with your statement that a good translator should translate both ways. I think we are oversimplifying human brain and skills it can acquire.
By the way, 99% of French speaking Canadians I met there spoke notoriously worse English than I did (and I am certainly not near native speaker of the English language, by far not). Some, in fact, did could not utter a phrase in English and I had to use my poor French, which is by the way very different from "their" French; especially the accent and vocabulary).
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