Introduction
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This document presents an analysis and summary of the key decisions and proceedings relating to official languages from January 1999 to December 2000. It is intended above all to provide the reader with information about the evolution of language rights in Canada since our latest publication of the same type, Language Rights in 1998. Although we have examined most of the important decisions, this is not an exhaustive review.
Sections 16 to 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms strengthen the other provisions of the Constitution relating to the use of English and French and provide the basis for the guarantees set out in the Official Languages Act of 1988, which has nearly constitutional status. These texts not only confirm the fundamental nature of language rights as human rights but also reflect their dynamic nature. This legislative framework encourages Parliament and legislative assemblies to foster the advancement toward equal status of English and French in Canadian society.
The cases reviewed in this report aptly illustrate the linkage between constitutional and statute-based language rights. This fact is evident in the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada (Beaulac) concerning language of trial provisions in the Criminal Code. While the right to be tried in one’s own official language involves questions of statutory construction, the Court also found that it engages principles of interpretation that apply to all language rights, whether constitutionally based or not. As discussed below, the new orientation given the interpretation of language rights effectively resolves contradictory trends in the case law in favour of a liberal approach based on achieving a language right’s underlying purpose. Among other things, this means that such rights should be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and development of Canada’s official language communities. The general interpretive framework articulated by the Supreme Court in Beaulac has already been referred to and applied in various decisions subsequently rendered by other courts.
The diversity of issues reviewed in this report, ranging from the important area of minority language education to the use of official languages in both the criminal trial process and civil proceedings before federal and provincial courts, to the language of work in federal institutions, to the provision of services by both federal and provincial governments, demonstrates the important role our courts play in ensuring that language rights are properly implemented. Where governments fail to respect fully the remedial purposes of minority language guarantees, the courts have not hesitated to fashion appropriate relief aimed at correcting past and current injustice.
The courts have also recognized that language rights imply correlative government duties to allocate resources and maintain institutions capable of operating in both official languages. A language right becomes illusory in the absence of positive government action designed to facilitate its use. One need only think of the significant government investment needed to create the school infrastructures that allow for the effective exercise of the right to minority language education. The same can be said with respect to all other institutional settings within which the use of a minority official language is guaranteed. The cases examined in this report clearly bear witness to the importance of government obligations to preserve and enhance the well-being and vitality of official language minority communities.
