Case information

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Charter of Rights — Constitutional law — Minority language educational rights — Remedies — Court of Appeal setting aside judgment ordering expansion of school and declaring ministerial directive concerning admissions to minority language schools to be of no force or effect — Whether Court of Appeal changed standard of review applicable to decision of trial court — Whether Court of Appeal erred in interpreting s. 23 of Charter — Whether Court of Appeal erred in interpreting minority language group’s powers of management in relation to admissions — Whether Court of Appeal erred in setting aside remedy awarded under s. 24 of Charter — Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ss. 23 and 24.

École Boréale, the only French language school in Hay River in the Northwest Territories, opened in 2005. The school is for children at the primary and secondary levels.

In May 2008, the applicants brought an action concerning the scope of the obligations of the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) as regards French language instruction for the French linguistic minority population of Hay River. Specifically, the dispute concerned the adequacy and quality of the infrastructure provided by the GNWT for the French language instruction program offered at École Boréale, the degree of autonomy and control the Commission scolaire francophone des Territoires du Nord-Ouest should be able to exercise, and the respective rights of the government and the CSFTN-O regarding the establishment of admission criteria for the French language instruction program.

As a remedy, the applicants sought an order compelling the GNWT to expand École Boréale and various declarations regarding the scope of the CSFTN-O’s powers of management. They challenged the constitutional validity of the definition of the term “parent” in the Education Act and of a 2008 directive from the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment governing admission criteria for the French-language instruction program. That directive provided that the Commission scolaire could not, without the Minister’s authorization, permit the enrolment of a student who did not meet the criteria set out in s. 23 of the Charter with regard to minority language educational rights.