Language Rights

• Author: Hon. Robert J. Sharpe/Kent Roach
• Profession: Court of Appeal for Ontario- Faculty of Law University of Toronto
• Pages: 321-335

CHAP TER 16

L A NGUAGE R IGHT S

The appropriate status of the French and English languages has been

an ongoing source of debate throughout Canadian history, both in the

political and in the legal sphere. The Supreme Court has recognized

that minority language rights involve both the rights of individuals and

the rights of communities and t hat language rights must be interpreted

in the context of Canada’s history. The Court has commented:

First, the members of the minority communities and their familie s,

in every province and territory, must be given t he opportunity to

achieve their personal aspirat ions. Second, on the collective level,

these lang uage issues are related to the development a nd existence of

the English-speaking minority in Quebec and the French-spe aking

minorities e lsewhere in Canada. They als o inevitably have an impact

on how Quebec’s French-speak ing community perceives its future i n

Canada, since t hat community, which is in t he majority in Queb ec,

is in the minor ity in Canada, and even more so in Nort h America as

a whole. To this picture must be added the se rious difficulties result-

ing from the rate of as similation of French-speak ing minority groups

outside Quebec, whose cur rent language r ights were acquired only

recently, at considerable expens e and with gre at difficulty. Thus, in

interpreting t hese rights, the courts h ave a responsibility to reconcile

sometimes divergent interests and prior ities, and to be sen sitive to

the future of each lang uage community. Our country’s social context ,

demographics and h istory wil l therefore necessa rily comprise the

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