centre for public legal education alberta minority official language rights legislation and...

Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta

Minority Official Language Rights

Legislation and Government Publications

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Presentation Outline

Legal Structure: Overview

Source: Charter

Questions and answers

Case studies

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Minority Official Language Rights

Constitutional documents- Charter

- Manitoba Act- Constitution Act

Federal, provincial &

municipal policies

Federal, provincial &

municipal language laws

Official Languages Act, French Language

Services Act

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Federal Powers(s. 91)

• postal service• criminal law• military• banking, money• marriage/divorce• some taxes• railway• etc...

Provincial Powers(s. 92)

• ceremony of marriage• property and civil rights in

the province• hospitals• education• municipal institutions• some prisons• etc…

Constitution Act, 1867

Sections 91 and 92

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Legal StructureConstitutional Legislation• most permanent; enshrined; harder to change• applies to four categories across Canada: 3 in

federal domain, one in the provincial domain

Federal Legislation• topics listed in s.91 of CA 1867

Provincial Legislation• only to topics listed in s.92 of CA 1867;

contain some language rights; varies; s.93

Municipal Legislation• varies

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Legislation and Government Publications

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Accessing Your Rights

The issues: you need to read the law, access information about a law, get involved in the debate around a law

• Is it possible to do this in French?

• If so, how?

• If not, why not? Should it be? Is there something you can do about it?

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What was your past experience?

Examples?

Which?

How did you go about it?

Any challenges?

The result?

Left with any questions?

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Source - the Charter

Stem from section 18:

(1) The statutes, records and journals of Parliament shall be printed and published in English and French and both language versions are equally authoritative.

(2) The statutes, records and journals of the legislature of New Brunswick shall be printed and published in English and French and both language versions are equally authoritative.

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What does that mean? (cont’d)

• In the House of Commons and the Senate, and in New Brunswick, all journal, order papers, notices and minutes including Hansard are in both languages.

• Both language versions are of equal authority/validity.

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House of Commons (example)

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Senate (example)

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What does that mean?

• All federal laws and regulations exist in both languages

• Accessible in either language at: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/.

• In all original versions, both languages appear side by side.

• In addition, in New Brunswick, all provincial laws and regulations also exist in both languages.

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Hansard (example - French)

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Hansard (example)

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New Brunswick (examples)

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What does that mean? (cont’d)

Some provinces, although not listed as bilingual in the Charter, • Have bilingual requirements stemming from earlier constitutional

documents , such as the document that brought them into the Canadian federation (eg. Manitoba)OR

• Might interpret their earlier constitutional documents as requiring bilingualism (NWT ) or not (AB)

All laws/regulations in both languages: Manitoba; Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Some laws in both languages: Newfoundland and Nova Scotia Alberta has one: Loi Linguistique

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NWT

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Ontario

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What does that mean? (cont’d)

Municipalities get their powers because provinces delegated powers to them under s.92.

Municipalities: in New Brunswick have in both languages; in other provinces may not have in both

languages; cities that have Francophone or Acadian

roots, such as Winnipeg and Ottawa, may have in both languages.

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Winnipeg

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How do you find out?

• governmental websites – “laws” section

• local law libraries, e.g. courthouses, law schools

• online law libraries, e.g. CanLII

• public libraries

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What does that mean? (cont’d)

Written decisions in court cases

• not all have to provide in both languages

• Supreme Court of Canada and federal courts = yes

• New Brunswick courts = yes

• courts in other jurisdictions = not necessarily

• if not in both languages = can be in either language

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How do you find out?

• local law libraries, e.g. courthouses, law schools

• online law libraries, e.g. CanLII

• online courthouse databases

• public libraries

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SCC & Federal Courts (example)

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New Brunswick (example)

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Manitoba (example)

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What does that mean? (cont’d)

Information pertaining to law(s)

Both• Federal government @ www.gc.ca• New Brunswick Provides information in both languages.

• Other provinces, amount of information varies. NWT and Nunavut have a lot of information.

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Federal Government (examples)

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What does that mean? (cont’d)

Information pertaining to law(s)

Non-governmental organizations

• public legal education organizations

• Éducaloi, Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta, CLEO, PLEIS-NB/SPEIJ-NB

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Questions?

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Case Studies

• Chance to test what you have learned.

• Divide into groups.• Examine fact patterns. Refer to handouts.• Discuss.• Do you think there is a constitutionally-protected

right to legislation and/or government publications in the minority official language?

• If so, how would you have it fulfilled? What is reasonable? What would you argue?

• Report back in 10 minutes.

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Questions?

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Thank you!

For further information or training, contact us:

info@cplea.ca