''Mahe v Alberta'', 9901 S.C.R. 342 is a leading decision of the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

. The ruling is notable because the court established that section 23 of the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part o ...

'' requires parents of the official-language minority in each province to have the right either to be represented on the school board or to have a school board of their own to provide adequate protection for the

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

rights of their children.

Background

Three

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

citizens, Jean-Claude Mahe, Angeline Martel and Paul Dubé, were dissatisfied with the quality of the

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

schools provided by the

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

government. In 1982, they submitted a proposal to the Minister of Education for a new French

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

that would be administered by a committee of parents within an autonomous French

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

. The Minister of Education told them that it was not its policy to make such arrangements and so it suggested that they try to do so through the public school board. The board rejected them. Mahé and the others brought an action against the Alberta government for violating their right to a Francophone-run education system under section 23 of the ''Charter''. The questions before the Supreme Court were: # Have the rights of the Francophone population of Edmonton under section 23(2)(b) of the ''Charter'' been violated? # Do the rights under section 23 include the right to manage and control the schools? If so, what is the nature and extent of the management and control? # Does the provincial School Act violate section 23? If so, can it be saved under section 1 of the ''Charter''? # Are the rights affected by section 93 of the

Constitution Act, 1867 The ''Constitution Act, 1867'' (french: Loi constitutionnelle de 1867),''The Constitution Act, 1867'', 30 & 31 Victoria (U.K.), c. 3, http://canlii.ca/t/ldsw retrieved on 2019-03-14. originally enacted as the ''British North America Act, 186 ...

, section 29 of the ''Charter'', and section 17 of the

Alberta Act The ''Alberta Act'' (french: Loi sur l'Alberta), effective September 1, 1905, was the act of the Parliament of Canada that created the province of Alberta. The ''Act'' is similar in nature to the '' Saskatchewan Act'', which established the p ...

Opinion of the Court

The Court held that section 23 guarantees representation on the school board and exclusive control over the children's education with respect to culture, or it can guarantee a separate school board. However, there must be sufficient minority language population to warrant either level of protection. In this particular case, the Court decided representation on an existing school board would be sufficient and held that did not interfere with denominational school rights under section 29 of the ''Charter'' since it affected merely language. The Court's unanimous decision was given by Chief Justice

Brian Dickson Robert George Brian Dickson (May 25, 1916 – October 17, 1998) was a Canadian lawyer, military officer and judge. He was appointed a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada on March 26, 1973, and subsequently appointed the 15th Chief Jus ...

. He began by examining the purpose of section 23, to "preserve and promote the two

official languages An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...

of Canada, and their respective cultures." The section is intended to be remedial to prevent the loss of a minority group's language and cultural identity and so it must be interpreted in light of section 15 and 27 of the ''Charter''.

External links

* {{lexum-scc2, 1990, 1, 342, 133 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms case law Supreme Court of Canada cases 1990 in Canadian case law Education case law French-language education in Canada 1990 in education Education in Alberta Alberta litigation Minority rights case law Language policy in Canada Minority languages Medium of instruction History of Edmonton 1990 in Alberta Franco-Albertan culture Language case law