The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the Northwest Territories’ government was wrong to deny six children admission to French-language schools, even though their parents did not have a constitutional right to send them to these schools.
Denying admission to these students violated the values of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the court said in a unanimous decision Friday.
The “preservation and development of minority language communities are among the values underlying the protection” of minority language education, Justice Suzanne Côté wrote in the decision. The Northwest Territories’ education minister “was required to consider” these values when deciding if these students could attend Francophone schools, the decision says.
Parents have the right to send their children to a minority official language school if the parents speak the language or attended school in that language. This typically applies to parents who want to enrol their children in Francophone schools outside Quebec.
But some students can still attend minority language schools even if their parents do not have a constitutional right to do so. These parents are called non-rights holders.
The Northwest Territories developed a policy to determine which children of non-rights holding parents could attend French schools in Yellowknife and Hay River.
Between 2018 and 2019, the Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest and A.B. — the French school board in the Northwest Territories — decided to admit six children of non-rights holder parents to its Francophone schools, after determining that admitting them would benefit the territory’s Francophone community.
The then-education minister disagreed. She said the children did not fit the territory’s eligibility criteria and that admitting them would cost more money.
The school board asked for a judicial review, which is where a court reviews a government decision-maker’s decision. The Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories ruled that the minister was wrong to not admit the students.
On appeal, the Court of Appeal agreed with the government and said the children should not be admitted to the schools. The French school board appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The country’s highest court sided with the school board, calling the minister’s decisions “unreasonable.”
“Administrative decision makers have an obligation to consider the values relevant to the exercise of their discretion in addition to respecting charter rights,” the decision says.
The minister had the right to consider financial costs when making her decision, the decision says. But she did not properly consider how her decision would impact the preservation and development of the Francophone community in the territory.
Even though there was no charter violation in this case, the charter’s values still must be considered, the decision says.
“This is a very strong affirmation of how governments must take into account charter values,” said Perri Ravon, the school board’s lawyer.
This decision reinforces that governments need to consider more than costs when making decisions about education, says Ravon. This is particularly important when governments make decisions about minority language education.
This ruling “should lead to more protection for minority language communities across the country,” she said.
And this decision applies to all government decisions, she says.
“I think this is going to be a pretty foundational administrative law case,” she said.
It means governments must consider how their actions may impact charter rights, even if an action doesn’t directly negatively impact those rights, she says.
The court’s decision does say governments are not required to admit all students of non-rights holding parents. It also does not “amount to endorsing freedom of choice of the language of instruction,” the decision says.
“In each case, the decision maker must consider the relevant values in light of the particular circumstances of the application in order to decide whether to admit children of non-rights holding parents.”
In a statement to Canadian Affairs, the Northwest Territories’ government said it “will take the time to assess the decision and how our government will implement the decision going forward.” The government and French board “will continue to work in partnership” about admitting non-rights holders into French schools.
