Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

The Appellant Casimir, a Canadian citizen and mother of two, registered her children with the English Montréal School Board. She also filed an application for a certificate of eligibility for her children pursuant to s. 73(2) of the Charter of the French Language. The application was denied by the Minister’s designated person on the grounds that the eldest had not received the major part of her instruction in English in Canada as required by s. 73(2). The Appellant Casimir filed a motion for declaratory judgment and interlocutory order before the Superior Court, asking that the School Board be made to provide public instruction to her children in English, that she was a right-holder under s. 23(2) of the Canadian Charter and that she had the right to send her children to an English public school in Quebec. On November 13, 2000, the Superior Court granted the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds. The Court of Appeal confirmed the decision.

The Appellant Zorrilla is a Canadian citizen. Her son, born in 1990, attended an English private unsubsidized school in Quebec from December 2000 to June 2001. The Appellant Zorrilla filed a motion for declaratory judgement before the Superior Court, seeking a declaration that sections 72 and 73 of the Charter of the French Language were inconsistent with s. 23(2) of the Canadian Charter and invalid to the extent that s. 73(2), in granting the right to English education in Quebec, requires that the major part of the child’s education in Canada be in English. On March 7, 2001, the Superior Court dismissed the Attorney General’s motion to dismiss the application on jurisdictional issues. The Court of Appeal granted the appeal and quashed the Superior Court’s decision.

The Appellant Okwuobi is a Canadian citizen and father of two. He filed an application for a certificate of eligibility for his children with the Lester B. Pearson School Board pursuant to s. 73(2) of the Charter of the French Language. His application was denied by the designated person on the grounds that his eldest son had not received the major part of his education in English in Canada. The Appellant Okwuobi appealed the decision to the review committee and filed a motion for declaratory judgement before the Superior Court, seeking to invalidate sections 72 and 73 of the Charter of the French Language because of their infringement on s. 23(2) of the Canadian Charter. On September 10, 2001, the Superior Court granted the Respondents’ motions to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds. That decision was appealed to the Court of Appeal. The same day, the review committee dismissed Okwuobi’s appeal of the administrative decision. He then appealed to the Administrative Tribunal of Quebec, which, on December 19, 2001, reversed the review committee’s decision and declared the children eligible for public instruction in English in Quebec. On May 15, 2002, the Court of Appeal upheld the Superior Court’s decision on the motion to dismiss.