FÉDÉRATION NATIONALE DES CONSEILS SCOLAIRES FRANCOPHONES
Canada's highest court will hear the case pertaining to Franco-Columbians' education rights

The Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones (FNCSF) welcomes the Supreme Court of Canada's decision to hear 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 in the matter of French first-language education.

The appeal involves the method of financing French first-language education in British Columbia.

The plaintiffs argue that the current funding formula does not allow the CSF to offer its students an education that is equivalent to that offered to students in the province's English school boards.

In July 2018, the CSF, the Fédération des parents francophones de Colombie-Britannique and co-appellant parents filed an application with the province's Court of Appeal, calling into question certain aspects of the ruling handed down by Justice Russell in 2016. When the appeal was dismissed, the representatives turned to the highest court in the land.  

The Supreme Court of Canada will be called upon to rule on national and public interest issues such as the "substantive equality" criterion, the invocation of the First Section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the awarding of damages for a violation of the Charter. ^*

"This case is being followed closely by all of our school boards across the country" says Mario Pelletier, Chair of the FNCSF.

He adds:  "The FNCSF adheres to the principle of infrastructure equality, according to which Francophones are entitled to a school that is as suitable and as nice as the English schools in the French school's attendance area." Mister Pelletier explains : "Our organization also adheres to the principle of a funding formula that is tailored to the specific needs of French school boards, such that the Treasury Boards' funding decisions no longer depend on political factors unrelated to the needs of French-language minority communities. We sincerely hope the Supreme Court of Canada will uphold these two principles in its ruling."
 
For her part, Valérie Morand, Executive Director of the FNCSF, says the right to French first-language education in minority settings has often been under attack. "The history of French-language education in Canada has been marked by ongoing demands, fuelled by Francophones' resilience and determination to pass on their language and culture to their children. It is time that substantive equality in education be recognized through the highest court in the land to ensure adequate funding for French school boards, thereby fostering the flourishing, the vitality and the sustainability of Francophone minority communities."
 
The date of the one-day hearing has yet to be confirmed.

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Substantive Equality: The British Columbia Supreme Court and Court of Appeal 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. British Columbia's courts focused on the "proportionality" between school buildings and by taking this approach, they disregarded the "substantive equality" criterion set out by the Supreme Court of Canada.

The First Section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter): The appeal before the British Columbia Court of Appeal called into question Justice Russell's conclusion that the first section of the Charter could be successfully invoked by a province, regardless of its financial resources. According to the Court of Appeal, providing Francophones with the school buildings to which they are entitled would be too costly. Not only is this the first time a court of appeal has reached such a conclusion, until now and as a rule only financial crises have led the Supreme Court of Canada to "justify" an infringement of rights guaranteed by the Charter.

Damages for Charter violations: The trial judge concluded that because of decades of systemic underfunding for school transportation, the Province was required to correct the constitutional infringement by paying the CSF six million dollars in damages. The judges of the Court of Appeal overturned this conclusion. As a result of the test as formulated by the Court of Appeal, damage awards to those whose Charter rights have been infringed will be awarded much more sparingly.

(Sources: CSF/FPFCB)