R. v. Beaulac
Encyclopedia
| R. v. Beaulac | ||||||
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 Supreme Court of Canada |
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| Argued February 24, 1999 Decided May 20, 1999 |
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| Holding | ||||||
| Language rights in the Constitution of Canada and section 530 of the Criminal Code are to be given a purposive and liberal interpretation. | ||||||
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R. v. Beaulac [1999] 1 S.C.R. 768 is a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...
on language rights. Notably, the majority adopted a liberal and purposive interpretation of language rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
, overturning conservative case law such as Société des Acadiens v. Association of Parents
Société des Acadiens v. Association of Parents
Société des Acadiens v. Association of Parents, [1986] 1 S.C.R. 549 is an early Supreme Court of Canada decision on minority language rights under section 19 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
(1986). As the majority wrote, "To the extent that Société des Acadiens du Nouveau-Brunswick... stands for a restrictive interpretation of language rights, it is to be rejected."
Background
Jean Victor Beaulac was a man accused of murder and was brought before the British Columbia Supreme Court and convicted. Beaulac claimed rights under section 530 of the Criminal Code of CanadaCriminal Code of Canada
The Criminal Code or Code criminel is a law that codifies most criminal offences and procedures in Canada. Its official long title is "An Act respecting the criminal law"...
, which allows for the accused to be heard in court in his or her language, if it is one of the official languages of Canada, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
or French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. The Supreme Court noted in its 1999 decision that this was the first time it had ever considered this Criminal Code right. At a lower level, Beaulac had been denied this right to be heard in French, since one judge found Beaulac's skills in English were adequate though not perfect.
Decision
The majority of the Court first considered the Constitution of CanadaConstitution of Canada
The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law in Canada; the country's constitution is an amalgamation of codified acts and uncodified traditions and conventions. It outlines Canada's system of government, as well as the civil rights of all Canadian citizens and those in Canada...
, noting that the Constitution Act, 1867
Constitution Act, 1867
The Constitution Act, 1867 , is a major part of Canada's Constitution. The Act created a federal dominion and defines much of the operation of the Government of Canada, including its federal structure, the House of Commons, the Senate, the justice system, and the taxation system...
, which set out the rules for Canadian federalism
Canadian federalism
Canada is a federation with two distinct jurisdictions of political authority: the country-wide federal government and the ten regionally-based provincial governments. It also has three territorial governments in the far north, though these are subject to the federal government...
, did not give any level of government exclusive jurisdiction to create language rights, and both levels probably could. There were language rights in the Constitution as well, and these could provide context for language rights cases. These include section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, and it was noted that in Jones v. Attorney General of New Brunswick
Jones v. Attorney General of New Brunswick
Jones v. New Brunswick , [1975] 2 S.C.R. 182 is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada on the protection of language rights under the Canadian Constitution. The Mayor of Moncton, Leonard Jones, challenged the federal Official Languages Act, which made both French and English the...
(1975) the Supreme Court found that these can be expanded upon. The majority noted that in 1986 the Supreme Court found that language rights should be handled conservatively, in MacDonald v. City of Montreal, Société des Acadiens and Bilodeau v. Attorney General of Manitoba. However, the majority claimed conservative interpretation of language rights has since given way to a more liberal approach, in Ford v. Quebec (Attorney General)
Ford v. Quebec (Attorney General)
Ford v. Quebec , [1988] 2 S.C.R. 712 is a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision in which the Court struck down part of the Charter of the French Language, commonly known as Bill 101. This law had restricted the use of commercial signs written in languages other than French...
(1988), which concerned language and freedom of expression under section 2 of the Canadian Charter
Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Constitution of Canada's Charter of Rights that lists what the Charter calls "fundamental freedoms" theoretically applying to everyone in Canada, regardless of whether they are a Canadian citizen, or an individual or...
. The Court took this as important, since this "re-affirm[s] the importance of language rights as supporting official language communities and their culture." Other noted victories for language rights included Mahe v. Alberta
Mahe v. Alberta
Mahé v. Alberta, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 342 is a leading decision of the Supreme Court of Canada. The ruling is notable because the court established that section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires that parents of the official-language minority in each province have the right...
(1990) on minority language
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.-International politics:...
education rights in section 23 of the Canadian Charter
Section Twenty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Twenty-three of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the section of the Charter that constitutionally guarantees minority language educational rights to French-speaking communities outside Quebec, and, to a lesser extent, English-speaking minorities in Quebec...
and Reference re Manitoba Language Rights
Reference re Manitoba Language Rights
Reference re Manitoba Language Rights [1985] 1 S.C.R. 721 was a reference question posed to the Supreme Court of Canada regarding provisions in the Manitoba Act stipulating the provision of French language services in the province of Manitoba...
(1992) on the Manitoba Act
Manitoba Act
The Manitoba Act, originally titled An Act to amend and continue the Act 32 and 33 Victoria, chapter 3; and to establish and provide for the Government of the Province of Manitoba, is an act of the Parliament of Canada that is defined by the Constitution Act, 1982 as forming a part of the...
. While in Société des Acadiens the Court had played down language rights because they were deemed to be the result of political deals, in this case the Court decided that it does not follow that that means the courts cannot interpret the rights in the same way it interprets other rights. Hence, the Court saw language rights as individual rights
Individual rights
Group rights are rights held by a group rather than by its members separately, or rights held only by individuals within the specified group; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people regardless of their group membership or lack thereof...
promoting dignity
Dignity
Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable rights...
, and the Criminal Code right represented a growth in language rights encouraged by section 16 of the Canadian Charter
Section Sixteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Section Sixteen of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the first of several sections of the Charter dealing with Canada's two official languages, English and French...
.
Turning to section 530 of the Criminal Code, the Court called it an "absolute right." Since past interpretation indicated such rights are not just due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
, it should be respected beyond what the letter of the law actually demands. The Court also found that the accused's language was a personal matter and related to one's identity, and therefore courts should respect the accused's "subjective" feelings towards a language. In this case, the Court ordered a new trial.
Concurrence
Chief Justice Antonio LamerAntonio Lamer
Joseph Antonio Charles Lamer, PC, CC, CD was a Canadian lawyer, jurist and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.-Personal life:...
and Ian Binnie
Ian Binnie
William Ian Corneil Binnie was a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, serving from 1998 to 2011. Of the justices appointed to the Supreme Court in recent years, he is one of the few to have never sat as a judge prior to his appointment.- Personal life and career as lawyer :Binnie was...
wrote a brief concurrence on section 530 of the Criminal Code. However, they protested the reconsideration of Société des Acadiens and section 16 of the Charter since the Beaulac case did not involve constitutional law. "It is a well-established rule of prudence that courts ought not to pronounce on constitutional issues unless they are squarely raised for decision," they wrote.