THE HONOURABLE STÉPHANE DION HIGHLIGHTS THE PROPER USE OF THE LAW IN THE AREA OF THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

TORONTO, ONTARIO, January 24, 2002 – In a speech today to members of the Ontario Bar Association and the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario, the Honourable Stéphane Dion, President of the Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, affirmed that, in the area of the official languages, it is imperative to rely both on political responsibility and on judicial action. "By wanting to extend legal guarantees too much, one ends up defeating political initiative", he stated.

Minister Dion noted the many gains made in the language rights area, notably in the past 30 years, citing the examples of the Official Languages Act of 1969 and of 1988 as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Mr. Dion underlined the extent to which the courts have played a positive role starting in the 1970s, notably in the areas of legislative bilingualism and minority-language education rights. He referred to the liberal and dynamic interpretations made by the Supreme Court of Canada in the Blaikie decisions regarding legislative bilingualism and in the Mahe and Arsenault-Cameron decisions in the education field. He also indicated that this generous approach has recently been extended to other fields as evidenced by the Beaulac and Montfort decisions which confirmed the principle of substantive equality of the two official languages.

The Minister then discussed the limitations of the law in terms of defending language rights, and emphasized that the Government cannot support an argument such as "ratcheting," according to which every government initiative targeting a linguistic minority becomes an acquired right. This argument, if it had been accepted by the courts, "would have disturbed the needed balance between the field of political initiative and that of legal guarantees (...) and would have been prejudicial to the cause of bilingualism and official-language minorities", the Minister stated.

The Minister also said that, in the context in which linguistic communities are evolving, it is important that governments be able to set their priorities effectively as they do not have the resources to advance everything that would be ideally required. "These priorities have to be set very carefully. There is a serious risk of letting them fluctuate randomly as cases make their way through the courts", he pointed out.

Mr. Dion continued by asserting that it is desirable for the government and legislators, while continuing to analyse carefully any situation where their intervention before the courts is likely to support minority communities, to show leadership and adopt themselves the dynamic and liberal approach of the courts. "Legal battles consume resources, wear down litigants, and sometimes create divisions within communities," but "until governments themselves assume their constitutional and legal responsibilities for Canadian bilingualism, citizens and communities will be justified in turning to the courts", he stated.

After illustrating the progress achieved in the area of minority Francophone school attendance and governance as well as in the Francophone representation in the federal public service, Mr. Dion affirmed that "if such progress has been possible, it is because we have been able to strike and maintain the proper balance between the area of political initiative and that of legal guarantees".

Having at first noted the need to firmly entrench language rights in the Constitution and laws, Minister Dion concluded by making another equally important point, namely the need to "mobilize all of the vitality of communities, all of the good will of the country’s Francophones and Francophiles, and all of governments’ capacity for initiative". And he repeated the commitment by the Prime Minister and his government toward the promotion of bilingualism and the development of official-language minority communities.

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