The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Friday that the province of British Columbia was violating the rights of francophones by underfunding their education system, a victory for defenders of French against English in this officially bilingual country.
The highest court in the country found that British Columbia violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees everyone the right to education in the minority language of the province in which they reside.
“The state’s mission is to manage limited budgetary resources to meet needs that are anything but limited”, said Justice Richard Wagner. Budgetary savings cannot justify deviating from fundamental rights, he added, however.
Quebec, an exception
This decision puts an end to a decade of legal battle waged by a Francophone school board in British Columbia, which manages a network of educational establishments, and Francophone parents in order to improve the education services of a Francophone population. growing.
About 64,000 people use French as their main language among the 5 million inhabitants of British Columbia, up 21% since 2006, according to the Commissioner of Official Languages.
Some 6,200 students are also enrolled in the province’s 44 French-language schools, among the nearly 576,000 students enrolled in total.
In Canada, Francophones are a minority in nine out of ten provinces, Quebec being the exception.
Up to two hours of school transportation
The complainants pointed in particular to long delays in school transportation, up to two hours.
For many families, this meant choosing to “Do not send their children to French schools”, assured CBC Suzana Straus, president of the Federation of Francophone Parents of British Columbia.
“This Supreme Court decision is very good news for these communities and for our country”, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau welcomed in his daily press briefing.
“The communities have been telling us for a long time that the provinces are not adequately funding the services they are owed and we hope that from now on, the provinces will better respect the linguistic communities”he continued, adding that the federal government was ready to help them.
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