Section 20 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 ...
'' is one of the sections of the
Constitution of Canada
The Constitution of Canada (french: Constitution du Canada) is the supreme law in Canada. It outlines Canada's system of government and the civil and human rights of those who are citizens of Canada and non-citizens in Canada. Its contents a ...
dealing with
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
's two
official language
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, ...
s,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
French. Along with
section 16
Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea
* Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents
** Section sig ...
, section 20 is one of the few sections under the title "Official Languages of Canada" that guarantees bilingualism outside
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, legislatures and
courts
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
. This also makes it more extensive than language rights in 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 20's specific function is to establish a right to English and French services from the governments of Canada and
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
.
Text
Section 20 reads:
Rights and limitations
Section 20 applies to services from offices of Parliament and the government of Canada, including government departments and the
bureaucracy
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
. According to some judicial decisions, it also applies to services from
police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...
departments and the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...
, although not all police officers need to be bilingual. The section's requirements are fully applicable to the ''main'' of these offices on the federal level. Section 20 limits its rights only when dealing with the lower-level offices, where there must be considerable interest for services in both languages, or if the offices are filling a function that one would expect should be carried out in both languages.
[Hogg, page 1153.]
As section 20 applies to offices besides Parliament and the courts, it is more extensive than
sections 17-
22 of the ''Charter'' and language rights in section 133 of the ''Constitution Act, 1867''. As far as the text is concerned, these rights are even more extensive in respect to the government of New Brunswick, where there are no requirements for considerable interest for the right to exist.
As constitutional scholar
Peter Hogg
Peter Wardell Hogg (12 March 1939 – 4 February 2020) was a New Zealand-born Canadian legal scholar and lawyer. He was best known as a leading authority on Canadian constitutional law, with the most academic citations in Supreme Court jurispru ...
notes, other provinces are not required to provide bilingual services under section 20, but some choose to do so under provincial legislation.
Judicial interpretation
In 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 ...
case ''
Société des Acadiens v. Association of Parents'' (1986), Justice
Bertha Wilson remarked that the limited rights in section 20 seemed to contrast with section 16, which encourages growth in government bilingualism. However, she speculated Parliament could use section 16 to heighten expectations for bilingualism in section 20, by giving the requirement for considerable interest in bilingualism a flexible interpretation. Wilson did, however, write that courts could not employ this flexible interpretation.
The requirement for considerable interest was interpreted in ''Saulnier v. The Queen'', (1989), in which it was found that the
Department of Fisheries violated section 20 by providing English-only services, (1) by simply presuming there was no need for French services, (2) because there were penal consequences for anyone who disobeyed the law not provided in French, and (3) even though some French Canadians understood English, French was still their first language. In ''Professional Institute of the Public Service v. The Queen'' (1993), it was added that relevant factors for requiring bilingualism should include the number of people in a
minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...
community, interest among the population, and relations between the people and the government. Statistics and the practices of the office might be of use in measuring these things.
In ''R. v. Haché'', (1993), it was found the government is not under any obligation to tell people that they have rights under section 20.
Public views
In 1989, a few political scientists published a survey on the public's opinion on section 20. It indicated that
French Canadian
French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...
s strongly support French services outside
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and in almost equal measure support the same rights for
English Quebec. Ninety-seven percent of English Canadians support the right for English Quebeckers, and 65% of English Canadians supported the rights of French Canadians under section 20.
[Paul M. Sniderman, Joseph F. Fletcher, Peter H. Russell and Philip E. Tetlock, "Political Culture and the Problem of Double Standards: Mass and Elite Attitudes toward Language Rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," ''Canadian Journal of Political Science'', vol. 22, no. 2. (June 1989), pp. 266-267]
References
External links
Overview of section 20 case law at the Canadian Legal Information Institute
Fundamental Freedoms: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms- Charter of Rights website with video, audio and the Charter in over 20 languages
{{DEFAULTSORT:Section 20
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Bilingualism in Canada
Language policy in Canada
Language legislation
Government of Canada
Government of New Brunswick