Alberta not required to print laws in French

Francis Poulin was a lawyer for one of the men and says there is a growing number of francophones in both Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The Supreme Court issued a 6-to-3 split decision which ends that legal battle in Alberta.

“Today’s decision means that francophones in Saskatchewan and Alberta will not have an equal right to access the laws and the courts”. “It takes a lot of time and energy to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court”.

The court on Thursday dismissed four appeals which argued sections of the National Defence Act were broader than necessary and therefore violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“It certainly isn’t a decision that the Francophone community and the French speaking community of Alberta were hoping for, if the deicison would have been in favor of Mr. Caron and Mr. Boutet it would have put Alberta on bascially a level field as other jurisdictions throughout the country” says Nolette.

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”. The judge in that trial ruled that the historical documents did not enshrine language rights in Alberta and that the province was not required to have bilingual laws. Still, Sigur-Cloutier wanted to see those rights entrenched in the constitution rather than be realized as a privilege in Saskatchewan.

The province says there are about 50 bilingual laws in Saskatchewan.

The court said Parliament’s objective in establishing the military justice system was to provide processes that assure the maintenance of discipline, efficiency and morale in the military.