From January 29 to February 2, the British Columbia Court of Appeal heard the appeal brought by the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique (CSF), the Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique, and co-appellant parents against the judgment made by Justice Russell in September 2016.

This hearing allowed the two parties in the trial about Francophone education in British Columbia to present their arguments on the issues they had decided to appeal.

The submissions presented by the lawyers representing the CSF, the Fédération des parents, and the co-appellant parents alleged that several conclusions made by Justice Russell were erroneous and will undermine the future of the Francophone community in British Columbia if they are not corrected. These submissions were based on the following three issues:

Assimilation and the Future of a Francophone Presence in British Columbia

A pessimistic view of our future and a restrictive interpretation of the law led in part to the Justice’s conclusion that Francophone schools can at best only slow the assimilation of the Francophone community. This defeatist view permeates the entire judgment.

Substantive Equality

In her ruling, the Justice erroneously concluded that to determine whether equality has been achieved between a CSF school and the English-language schools competing with it, a comparison should be made with schools that have similar student populations and buildings with similar or identical capacities. This kind of analysis will almost always put the linguistic minority at a disadvantage. The Justice focuses on the “proportionality” between CSF school buildings and those of the English-language majority, and by taking this approach, she violates the principle of “substantive equality” laid down by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The First Section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter)

The appeal calls into question the Justice’s conclusion that the first section of the Charter can be successfully invoked by the Province to justify violations of section 23. According to the Justice, providing Francophones with the school buildings to which they are entitled would be too costly, despite British Columbia’s budget surpluses, which are the envy of the rest of Canada.

It is impossible to know when the Court of Appeal will hand down its decision. The Court of Appeal often deliberates for six to nine months. We hope that in this case, it will be sooner rather than later.

For more information about the legal case of the Fédération des parents, the CSF, and co-appellant parents (summary of the proceedings, important dates, news releases related to the proceedings, etc.), visit www.fpfcb.bc.ca/causejuridique.