The Supreme Court of Canada [official website] ruled [judgment] on Friday that the constitution does not require the Alberta legislature to enact laws in both French and English.
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Rejecting the appeal, the Supreme Court nevertheless reaffirmed the importance of language rights in Canada: “There is, of course, no question that linguistic duality and linguistic rights with respect to French and English are deeply rooted in our history and reflect our fundamental principles of constitutionalism and the protection of minorities”.
In a 6-3 split decision the Supreme Court ruling ends a legal fight that has lasted more than a decade, beginning when Gilles Caron of Alberta received a traffic ticket in 2003.
Even so, she noted the ACF has had a good working relationship with the Saskatchewan government over the years, and that issues such as language rights in the courts and legislation apply more to Alberta.
This time, the majority of judges said there’s no constitutional requirement to have bilingual laws in Alberta and Saskatchewan, although the three dissenting judges said there is such a requirement.
The Supreme Court agreed, saying their argument is inconsistent with the context and objective of the documents the men refer to, and that provinces have the right to choose which language or languages are to be used in their legislative processes.
The provincial government says it does enact a few laws in both languages – and will continue to do so.
“But one can not simply infer a guarantee of legislative bilingualism that would override this exclusive provincial jurisdiction absent clear textual and contextual evidence to support an entrenched right”.
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“We think there’s certainly a need for an increase in french laws and access to the courts”.
